Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T15:04:42.610Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“SOCIALLY MIXED” PUBLIC HOUSING REDEVELOPMENT AS A DESTIGMATIZATION STRATEGY IN TORONTO'S REGENT PARK

A Theoretical Approach and a Research Agenda1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2012

James R. Dunn
James R. Dunn*
Affiliation:
Department of Health, Aging, and Society, McMaster University
*
James R. Dunn, Department of Health, Aging and Society, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M4 and Centre for Research on Inner City Health, The Keenan Research Centre in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Over the last two decades decision makers have sought to address problems with large concentrations of poverty and minority ethnoracial groups in the cities of Western Europe and the Anglo-American world that are the direct result of the manner in which public housing was built in the early postwar era. The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia have developed programs that introduce “social mix” into such public housing developments. These initiatives are designed to alter the social dynamics of places with high levels of concentrated poverty and ethnoracial minority groups that are believed to magnify the disadvantages of poverty and marginalization. In this paper, I argue that this is a destigmatization strategy, but not the same kind of destigmatization strategy that has been described in the literature. Using the example of Toronto's Regent Park, a large public housing development near downtown, I develop a research agenda for understanding the gap between a quasi-state agency's efforts to destigmatize public housing sites (“place destigmatization”) and the everyday destigmatization practices and experiences of residents (“personal destigmatization”). The paper begins with a review of the putative mechanisms linking socially mixed public housing redevelopment and outcomes for residents, including social capital, social control, role modelling, and changes to the political economy of place. This review finds little evidence of these effects in the literature. Consequently, I argue for an inductive approach to the study of the outcomes of social mix, rather than the common practice of judging such outcomes against the benchmark of close, intimate relationships between new, middle-class residents and existing public housing residents. I further argue that the “normalization” of the built form that is a major part of socially mixed redevelopment is a form of place destigmatization, and may alter both material practices and representational practices related to stigma, which have very real effects on the everyday experience of residents.

Keywords

Public HousingConcentrated PovertyPlace DestigmatizationRedevelopmentTorontoBuilt FormMaterial PracticesRepresentational Practices
Type
Special Feature
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , Spring 2012 , pp. 87 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The views expressed in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

References

REFERENCES

Aldana, B. U. and Qunitero, M. A. (2008). A Comparison of Three Methods for Sampling Hard-To-Reach Populations. Pensamiento Psicológico, 4(10): 167–176.Google Scholar
Arthurson, K. (2008). Australian Public Housing and the Diverse Histories of Social Mix. Journal of Urban History, 34(3): 484–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauder, H. (2001). “You're Good With Your Hands, Why Don't You Become An Auto Mechanic”: Neighborhood Context, Institutions and Career Development. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 25(3): 593–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohl, C. C. (2000). New Urbanism and the City: Potential Applications and Implications for Distressed Inner City Neighborhoods. Housing Policy Debate, 11(4): 761–801.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouchard, G. (2009). Collective Imaginaries and Population Health : How Health Data Can Highlight Cultural History. In Hall, Peter A. and Lamont, Michèle (Eds.), Successful Societies: How Institutions and Culture Affect Health, pp. 169–200. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bradford, N. (2009). The OECD's Local Turn: “Innovative Liberalism” for the Cities? In Mahon, R. and McBride, S. (Eds.), The OECD and Transnational Governance, pp. 134–151. Vancouver, CA: UBC Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown-Saracino, J. (2009). A Neighborhood That Never Changes: Gentrification, Social Preservation, and the Search for Authenticity. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bunting, T. and Filion, P. (2001). Uneven Cities: Addressing Rising Inequality in the Twenty-First Century. Canadian Geographer, 45(1): 126–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buron, L., Popkin, S., Levy, D., Harris, L., and Khadduri, J. (2002). The HOPE VI Resident Tracking Study: A Snapshot of the Current Living Situation of Original Residents from Eight Sites. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.Google Scholar
Cole, I. and Goodchild, B. (2001). Social Mix and the “Balanced Community” in British Housing Policy—A Tale of Two Epochs. Geojournal, 51: 351–360.Google Scholar
DeSouza-Briggs, X., Popkin, S. J., and Goering, J. (2010). Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fullilove, M. (2004). Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do About It. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Gans, H. (1961). The Balanced Community: Homogeneity or Heterogeneity in Residential Areas? Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 27(3): 176–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. (1973). The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6): 1360–1380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregory, D. (1994). Geographical Imaginations. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gwyther, G. (2009). The Doctrine of Social Mix in the Mobile Society: A Theoretical Perspective. Housing, Theory and Society, 26(2): 143–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, D. (1973). Social Justice and the City. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Harvey, D. (1989). The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ihlanfeldt, K. R. and Sjoquist, D. L. (1998). The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: A Review of Recent Studies and Their Implications for Welfare Reform. Housing Policy Debate, 9(4): 849–892.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Joseph, M. (2006). Is Mixed-Income Development an Antidote to Urban Poverty? Housing Policy Debate, 17(2): 209–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearns, A. and Parkinson, M. (2001). The Significance Of Neighborhood. Urban Studies, 38(12): 2103–2110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kefalas, M. (2003). Working Class Heroes: Protecting Home, Community, and Nation in a Chicago Neighborhood. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleinhans, R. (2004). Social Implications of Housing Diversification in Urban Renewal: A Review of Recent Literature. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 19: 367–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleit, R. G. (2005). The Role of Neighborhood Social Networks in Scattered-Site Public Housing Residents' Search for Jobs. Housing Policy Debate, 12(3): 541–572.Google Scholar
Lamont, M. (2000). The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration. Cambridge, MA, and New York: Harvard University Press and Russell Sage Foundation.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamont, M. (2009). Responses to Racism, Health, and Social Inclusion as a Dimension of Successful Societies. In Hall, P. A. and Lamont, M. (Eds.), Successful Societies: How Institutions and Culture Affect Health, pp. 151–168. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lamont, M. and Mizrachi, N. (Forthcoming). Introduction: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things: Responses to Stigmatization in Comparative Perspective. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35(3).Google Scholar
Lamont, M. and Small, M. L. (2008). How Culture Matters: Enriching Our Understanding of Poverty. In Harris, D. and Lin, A. (Eds.), The Color of Poverty: Why Racial and Ethnic Disparities Exist, pp. 76–102 New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Lefebvre, H. (1974). La production de l'espace. Paris: Anthropos.Google Scholar
Lefebvre, H. (1991). The Production of Space. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lewis, O. (1966). The Culture of Poverty. Scientific American, 215: 19–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Low, S. and Smith, N. (2006). The Politics of Public Space. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Massey, D. S. (1996). The Age of Extremes: Concentrated Affluence and Poverty in the Twenty-First Century. Demography, 33: 395–412.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Massey, D. S., Gross, A. B., and Eggers, M. L. (1991). Segregation, the Concentration of Poverty, and the Life Chances of Individuals. Social Science Research, 20: 397–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, S. and Jencks, C. (1989). Growing Up In Poor Neighborhoods: How Much Does It Matter? Science, 243: 1441–1445.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muhib, F. B., Lin, L. S., Stueve, A., Miller, R. L., Ford, W. L., Johnson, W. D., and Smith, P. J. (2001). A Venue-Based Method for Sampling Hard-to-Reach Populations. Public Health Reports, 116(S1): 216–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newburger, H. B., Birch, E. L., and Wachter, S. M. (Eds.) (2011). Neighborhood and Life Chances: How Place Matters in Modern America. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, O. (1972). Defensible Space: Crime Prevention Through Urban Design. New York: Collier Books.Google Scholar
Newman, O. and Franck, K. A. (1982). The Effects of Building Size on Personal Crime and Fear of Crime. Population and Environment: Behavioral and Social Issues, 5(4): 203–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Neill, C. A. (1999). The New Lafayette Courts: The Reconstruction of an Inner-City Neighborhood. Paper presented at Rebuilding Communities: HOPE VI and New Urbanism, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, January 14–15.Google Scholar
Orfield, M. (1997). Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Orfield, M. (2002). American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Page, D. and Boughton, R. (1997). Mixed Tenure Housing Estates: A Study Undertaken for Notting Hill. London: Notting Hill Housing Authority.Google Scholar
Pinel, E. C. (1999). Stigma Consciousness: The Psychological Legacy of Social Stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(1): 114–128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porter, D. (1996). The History of Public Health and the Modern State. New York: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Rosenbaum, J., Stroh, L. K., and Flynn, C. A. (1998). Lake Parc Place: A Study of Mixed-Income Housing. Housing Policy Debate, 6(1): 231–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rybczynski, W. (1993). Bauhaus Blunders: Architecture and Public Housing. Public Interest, 93: 82–90.Google Scholar
Sahak, J. (2008). Race, Space and Place: Exploring Toronto's Regent Park from a Marxist Perspective. Toronto: Ryerson University, theses and dissertations. Paper 93. ⟨http://digitalcommons.ryerson.ca/dissertations/93⟩ (accessed January 4, 2012).Google Scholar
Sampson, R. J. and Groves, B. W. (1989). Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social Disorganization Theory. American Journal of Sociology, 94(4): 774–802.Google Scholar
Sampson, R. J., Raudenbush, S. W., and Earls, F. (1997). Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy. Science, 277: 918–924.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sarkis, H. (1997). Space for Recognition: On the Design of Public Space in a Multicultural Society. New Political Science, 19(1-2): 153–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarkissian, W. (1976). The Idea of Social Mix in Town Planning: An Historical Review. Urban Studies, 13: 231–246.Google Scholar
Silver, J. (2011). Good Places to Live: Poverty and Public Housing in Canada. Halifax and Winnipeg, CA: Fernwood Press.Google Scholar
Small, M. L. (2004). Villa Victoria: The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, N. (1990). Uneven Development. London: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Smith, N. (1996). The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Soja, E. (1989). Postmodern Geographies. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Tach, L. M. (2009). More Than Bricks and Mortar: Neighborhood Frames, Social Processes, and the Mixed-Income Redevelopment of a Public Housing Project. City & Community, 8(3): 269–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tissot, S. (2011). Of Dogs and Men: The Making of Spatial Boundaries in a Gentrifying Neighborhood. City & Community, 10(3): 265–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toronto Community Housing (2011). Regent Park Revitalization. Toronto Community Housing website: ⟨www.torontohousing.ca/investing_buildings/regent_park.⟩ (accessed Sept. 23, 2011).Google Scholar
Webber, M. M. (1963). Order in Diversity: Community Without Propinquity. In Wingo, L., (Ed.), Cities and Space: The Future Use of Urban Land, pp. 23–54. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Wellman, B. (2001). Computer Networks as Social Networks. Science, 293(5537): 2031–2034.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, W. J. (1987). The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar