The Fairy Tale Neighborhood of Rotterdam Gentrification and social identity in the Zwaanshalskwartier
2019
Gentrification seems like a perfect instrument when institutional organizations want to
upgrade the neighborhood from being deprived to a middle-class playground. The essence
of gentrification is to attract the middle-class to an area in order to improve the
neighborhood. However, this process has many implications, and this is especially evident to
the entrepreneurs in the Zwaanshalskwartier, a neighborhood in the north of Rotterdam.
The Zwaanshalskwartier has been experiencing a top-down gentrification process that was
started by a social housing corporation. Nevertheless, this process has had mixed successes
so far; both residential gentrification and commercial gentrification are on hold, which has
been affecting the established entrepreneurs. In this case, the desired target group - the
middle class - rarely visits the area and is not able to live there either, which has evidently
led to friction between and with the entrepreneurs, and other actors involved. These
tensions influence the social identity of the entrepreneurs; it is hard to shape and create a
social identity where all entrepreneurs can identify with and are satisfied with as well. These
tensions also affect the placemaking process. The creation of a quality place is not possible
to establish, because there is no cooperation between the entrepreneurs and involved
actors. The practice of top-down gentrification is therefore not always the perfect
instrument for improving a deprived neighborhood. Many actors are involved and in order
to keep the process going, institutions must ensure that there is little to no imbalance
between the residential gentrification and commercial gentrification. To make a top-down
gentrification process successful, the institutions responsible for the process should stay
involved. This research highlights that the expectation of gentrification can eventually
change to an organic process. This change, if all involved in a neighborhood can continue the
gentrification on their own without interference from the one responsible for the start of the
practice, cannot be confirmed.
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