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The story of property: Meditations on gentrification, renaming, and possibility

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  • Rachel Brahinsky

    (Politics and Urban & Public Affairs, University of San Francisco, USA)

Abstract

Property is a story. We assign land and resources legal status, and we narrate this as ownership and power. The interlocking loans, credit, and debt from which housing markets are compiled are built through narratives about value and its origins. The urban landscape, which is made by those markets, is produced through a confluence of human decisions, made with information about conditions and access. This information is based in stories—stories about what will sell, whether risk is viable, and what constitutes risk itself. These interlocking stories produce processes such as gentrification, one of the key contemporary challenges of booming cities in the Global North. Stories about the value of property, the primacy of growth, the role of race in valuation, and the urgency to invest in the urban landscape all shape gentrification. Meanwhile, stories from below have power too, offering important reframing. This paper examines two gentrifying neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area, analyzes the role of narrative in framing urban change there, and identifies counter-narratives that offer tangible alternatives with the potential to drive decisions around urban development. In sum, this paper foregrounds the role of narrative and storytelling in defining the economic forces such as property that shape urban places.

Suggested Citation

  • Rachel Brahinsky, 2020. "The story of property: Meditations on gentrification, renaming, and possibility," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(5), pages 837-855, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:52:y:2020:i:5:p:837-855
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X19895787
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rachel Weber, 2016. "Performing property cycles," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(6), pages 587-603, November.
    2. Jason Hackworth & Neil Smith, 2001. "The changing state of gentrification," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 92(4), pages 464-477, November.
    3. Manissa M. Maharawal & Erin McElroy, 2018. "The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project: Counter Mapping and Oral History toward Bay Area Housing Justice," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 108(2), pages 380-389, March.
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