Gentrification and place dispossession: Subjective dynamics of symbolic displacement and micro-segregation

Abstract

Gentrification is a process of urban transformation that triggers exclusionary displacement of the local population and its progressive replacement by socioeconomically advantaged groups. Added to the direct or indirect expulsion of the population, symbolic displacement of those who continue to reside in the place is defined by a set of psychosocial affectations and discomforts associated with the rupture, weakening or felt loss of the person’s personal, socio-affective and community bond with their living environment, that is, by a symbolic process of place dispossession. This article examines some of the main subjective dynamics that articulate place dispossession, based on a qualitative case study based on walking interviews with old and new residents in a Barcelona neighborhood. From a micro-political approach that interprets symbolic displacement as a ‘psy’ expression of capitalist practices of de/re-subjectivation for the revaluation of capital, we highlight three symbolic dynamics: dislocations of place-identity that weaken feelings of agency; reconfigurations of place attachment that psychologize the affective bond with the environment; and micro-segregations, as internal expulsions that represent at the same time the violation and the expression of the right to dwell. The article aims to provide useful ‘psy’ elements for criticizing and politicizing the personal and social unrest provoked by gentrification.