Has displacement been displaced from gentrification research?
Displacement has received less attention in the scholarly literature compared to gentrification. Yet being uprooted – psychologically or physically – from a home or neighborhood is often accompanied by trauma, grief, and anxiety that it may happen again (e.g., anticipatory displacement). I am interested in understanding the “root shock” experience, as both an acute and chronic threat, regardless of whether residents are physically moved or not.
At the same time, there are lessons to be learned from those who have survived root shock. In a 2024 paper celebrating the 20th anniversary of Fullilove’s seminal 2004 text, Jarmin Yeh, Laurent Reyes, and I conducted a secondary qualitative analysis of Black women living in three major cities that have undergone root shock. Their stories highlight practicing urban alchemy and embodying ‘caring city’ principles as a form of resistance to heal from spatial injustice by weaving new social fabrics.
