Urban Bordering Processes and Changing Neighborhood Images – Illuminating Gentrification in San Diego’s Inner-Ring Neighborhoods

Keywords: Neighborhood Images, Urban Bordering Processes, Border Studies, Gentrification, Urban Redevelopment, San Diego
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 28

Abstract

In recent years, redevelopment and gentrification processes in downtown and uptown San Diego have been advancing eastwards into adjacent, previously neglected communities such as Barrio Logan, Southeastern San Diego and City Heights. These processes are accompanied not just by structural changes, but by socio-spatial and symbolic transitions which still await in-depth analysis. In my paper, I will elaborate the connection between the social construction of neighborhood images and urban bordering processes to help understanding the expanding redevelopment and gentrification dynamics throughout San Diego’s inner-ring neighborhoods. This will be done on the basis of selected results of my dissertation project which draws on a mix of various qualitative and quantitative methods and data. In order to inquire into the changing realities in San Diego’s central neighborhoods, 39 qualitative interviews, 6 participatory observations, several cartographic and photographic illustrations and census data have been combined. On the one hand, by means of this multi-methodical approach, the paper traces the social and individual perception of neighborhoods and their changeability in order to carve out the role of neighborhood images in the complex process of gentrification. On the other hand, the paper initiates a geography of urban borders and boundaries. The aim is to work out the multi-dimensionality of urban bordering processes by which differences of and between neighborhoods are produced, maintained and reproduced in order to develop a new perspectival approach to aspects of spatial belonging, accessibility and participation in the city.