Bushwhacking: accounts as symbolic violence in the arts-based gentrification of Bushwick, Brooklyn

Abstract

A sizable body of research on arts-based gentrification has documented how artist residences have been strategically deployed by developers to kick-start capital reinvestment and lure so-called “creative class” professionals into formerly disinvested neighborhoods. Yet researchers rarely investigate how actual occupants of such residences perceive their role in neighborhood change. Addressing this gap, this article examines how residents of CastleBraid—a controversial luxury apartment complex designed for artists in Bushwick, Brooklyn—mediate tensions between their espoused preferences and the well-known negative consequences associated with gentrification. Drawing on the cultural sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, I argue that CastleBraid residents meaningfully account for gentrification through the practical logic of a particular group habitus which reinforces a shared identity and validates their presence in Bushwick. Moreover, I argue that these gentrification accounts constitute a form of symbolic violence which obscures underlying patterns of spatial inequality through misrecognition and the denial of gentrifiers’ privilege. Throughout, I argue that a renewed engagement with Bourdieusian theory may facilitate insights into gentrifier meaning-making that transcend the usual stylized typology of gentrifiers.

Appendices

Appendix A: interview schedule

Demographic information:

• How old are you?

• What do you do for a living?

• How long have you worked at your current job?

• How do you get to work? How long does it take you to get to work?

• What is your highest level of educational attainment?

• (If some college or higher) What was your major?

• Tell me about your family. What do your parents do for a living?

• Are you married or in a relationship?

• Do you have children?

• What racial or ethnic category/categories would you say best describes you?

Residential questions:

• What is your current address? (Ask if not current CB resident)

• How long have you lived at this address?

• What is your monthly rent? Do you find it financially difficult to pay your rent?

• Has your rent increased since you have been at your current address?

• (If yes) How much?

• Where did you live prior to your current address?

• Where are you originally from?

Neighborhood questions:

• Why did you choose to move to Bushwick?

• What did you think living in Bushwick would be like before you moved?

• What were your initial feelings about the area when you got here?

• What are the general feelings you have about your neighborhood now?

• How is this neighborhood different from other places you have lived?

• How long do you think you will live in this neighborhood? Why?

• What aspects of the neighborhood do you enjoy most?

• What aspects of the neighborhood would you like to see change?

CastleBraid questions:

• Why did you choose to move to CastleBraid?

• What aspects do/did you like about CastleBraid?

• What aspects do/did you not like about CastleBraid?

• (If current resident) How long do you think you will live in CastleBraid?

• Why?

• (If previous resident) Why did you move out of CastleBraid?

Recreation:

• With whom do you socialize?

• Where do you socialize?

• How many times during a week do you socialize with friends?

• Do many or most of your friends also live in this neighborhood?

• Are many or most of your friends from this neighborhood?

• How did you make friends when you moved to this neighborhood?

Culture/consumption:

• Do you, or have you ever, attended any community events in this neighborhood?

• (If yes) Can you briefly tell me about this/these experience(s)?

• Do you, or have you ever, attended any cultural (e.g. music or film) events in this neighborhood?

• (If yes) Can you briefly tell me about this/these experience(s)?

• Do you go shopping for clothing in this neighborhood? Where? Why do you shop there?

• What are your favorite bars or restaurants in this neighborhood? Why do you go there?

• Where do you go grocery shopping? Why do you shop there?

Art and creativity:

• Do you consider yourself to be a part of the Bushwick arts community?

  • (If yes) How do you contribute to that community?

• Can you tell me a little about the art you make?

• Can you tell me about a specific project you’ve recently worked on?

• With whom do you share your art?

Political views:

• Are you a registered voter?

  • (If yes) With which political party are you registered?

  • (If no) Why not?

• Are your political views similar to your family’s political views? Your friends?

• Which 2016 presidential candidate are you most likely to vote for? Why?

• What political or social issue do you feel most strongly about? Why?

Religious/civic engagement:

• Are you a member of any church or religious association?

• Do you consider yourself to be a religious person?

• Do you engage in any volunteer or community work?

Gentrification questions:

• What kinds of changes have you noticed in Bushwick since you moved?

• Do you and your friends ever talk about how neighborhood changes? What do you talk about?

• On the whole, do you think that your neighborhood has changed positively or negatively since you have moved here? Why?

• On the whole, how do you think this neighborhood has changed over the past twenty years?

• What, in your opinion, are the biggest problems in your community?

• Have you ever heard the term “gentrification”?

  • (If yes) How would you define the term?

  • (If yes) When did you first hear the term?

  • (If yes) How do you feel about gentrification?

  • (If yes) Do you think gentrification is happening here?

  • (If yes) Why?

  • (If yes) Do you and your friends ever talk about gentrification?

  • (If yes) How often?

  • (If yes) What, if any, would you say are the negative aspects of gentrification?

  • (If yes) What, if any, would you say are the positive aspects?

  • (If yes) Do you consider yourself to be affected by gentrification?

  • (If yes) How?

  • (If yes) Do you consider yourself to be a contributor to gentrification?

  • (If yes) How? How do you feel about that?

  • (If no) Why not?

Appendix B: anti-gentrification graffiti in Bushwick

See Figs. 3 and 4.

Fig. 3

Source photo taken by author, early 2016

Sidewalk stencil reading “Gentrification is the New Colonialism.”

Fig. 4

Source photo taken by author, early 2016.

Sidewalk stencil reading “Your Luxury is Our Displacement.”