Neighborhood for Sale; the effects of gentrification on the lived experiences of the older residents of Ondiep, Utrecht

Abstract

Drawing on my fieldwork research in Ondiep, a neighborhood in Utrecht, the Netherlands, I examine the effects of gentrification on the lived experience of its older established residents. In the context of neoliberalism, the Dutch redifferentiation policy will be explained as an urban strategy causing gentrification under the guise of social mixing . This policy of bringing higher-income residents into deprived neighborhoods creates a very real threat, that of the displacement of the incumbent working-class residents. However, rather than concentrating on the often-discussed physical displacement, this research focuses on the social effects of gentrification through the concept of 'indirect displacement'. This concept, together with Bourdieu s Theory of Capital (1986), shows how the renewal and the redifferentiation of the housing stock has changed the neighborhood into a place where the older established residents and newcomers live next to each other, instead of with each other. I will thus sketch a critical view on Dutch urban policy, positing that space itself becomes a marker of class identity (Herzfeld 2009, 22). In addition, I will use the concepts of mobility and collectivity, to give a brief, broader perspective on social transformations within the neighborhood.