‘Swimming against the tide’: Working-class discourse on gentrification in North Brooklyn

Abstract

DeSena’s chapter focuses on the once predominantly working-class neighbourhood of Greenpoint in northern Brooklyn to show how it is being destabilized by gentrification. Moreover, as gentrification is assisted by the large-scale development of luxury housing, upscale retail establishments and trendy entertainment venues, the cost of living continues to escalate, outpacing the economic resources of its working-class residents. Through the ‘stories’ of working-class residents, DeSena examines the perspective of working-class residents on gentrification, the effect that it has had on them and their strategies to maintain a place in their neighbourhood. The ethnography suggests that the working class exercises its activism through informal social networks and local traditional institutions.