Date of Award
Spring 5-2012
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Program
Urban Studies
Major Professor
Renia Ehrenfeucht
Second Advisor
Robert Collins
Third Advisor
Patrick Haughey
Fourth Advisor
Marla Nelson
Abstract
To understand the complexities involved with neighboring in public/private mixed-income communities, I conducted an ethnographic study of a HOPE VI site in a gentrifying neighborhood in New Orleans. Data was collected through 48 interviews, observation, mental maps, and casual encounters with residents living in the predominantly African American redeveloped St. Thomas Housing Development – renamed River Garden. I analyzed residents’ neighboring processes and how they socially constructed space, leading to the identification of several phenomena that shaped neighbor interaction in River Garden. As with previous HOPE VI neighborhood studies, within-group interaction was prevalent while cross-class interaction remained limited. Mechanisms that were intended to facilitate cross-class interaction were neutralized by the exertion of social control. Both limited mobility and neighborhood choice were factors that shaped residents’ perceptions of the neighborhood and motivated residents to either participate in the neighborhood as engaged residents or live as guarded residents dominated by constraints. I delineate the attributes of engaged residents to position neighborhood attachment as an important variable for neighbor interaction. Overall, the evidence illuminates class divisiveness among African American neighbors and demonstrates how the struggle for contested space creates a neighborhood filled with tension.
Recommended Citation
Owens, Kelly D., "The Social Construction of a Public/Private Neighborhood: Examining Neighbor Interaction and Neighborhood Meaning in a New Orleans Mixed-Income Development" (2012). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 1473.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1473
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.