Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Sociology and Anthropology

Committee Chair

Katie E. Corcoran

Committee Member

Jennifer Steele

Committee Member

James Nolan

Committee Member

L. Christopher Plein

Abstract

The core conceptualization of gentrification is social class ascension. Researchers and the public have often disagreed about how, when, where, and why gentrification occurs. When there is agreement, researchers often add specifications, such as displacement, that further confuse the concept. Reasons for the confusion include non-integrating theoretical dimensions, methods that assume independent effects, and the context of place. The objective of this study is to conceptualize gentrification in a case study city using two key dimensions, socioeconomic and economic processes, in a spatial context. Using principal component analysis to identify the latent constructs that account for change in Pittsburgh, PA, the history of a racialized industrial economy affected the indicator variables associated with social class change. In Pittsburgh, the population is not ascending from working class to middle class, but the middle class is changing in form from physical to intellectual labor. However, localized patterns of change reflect social and racialized agency to transition into a different form of the middle class. Scholars, journalists, and residents identify Pittsburgh as a gentrifying city, but the classic conceptualization of gentrification does not apply. The implications of this study recommend a deeper analysis of the type of social class ascension that occurs in cities. The history of the city and public policies that affect agency to transform from one form of social class to another inform the conceptualization of gentrification more so than socioeconomic and economic dimensions per se.

Download

Share

COinS