Social and Psychological Consequences of Gentrification Plans in Time-Worn Neighborhoods: Displacement of Residents and Threats for their Place Attachment

Abstract

Today, the old and time –worn neighbourhoods in our cities are faced with many physical, social and economic problems. Local governments and municipalities try to solve these problems through preparation of different types of development plans. Gentrification plan is one of these plans which have become a common strategy for revitalizing a deprived neighbourhood and changing the quality of its physical, economic, cultural and social characteristics. Despite all positive effects resulting from gentrification plans, it can socially and psychologically influenced the residents. According to these consequences, it is necessary to analyse and estimate the social and psychological costs in a gentrified neighborhood. The aim of this research is to investigate the interaction of these two dimensions in the process of gentrifying a neighborhood.  It tries to explore the effects of displacement and vanishing the residents' place attachment, place identity and sense of community in a gentrified society.

The "Abkouh” Neighborhood in Mashhad, Iran, is selected as study area for this research. This neighborhood is one of the old and time-worn neighborhoods in Mashhad which is planned by Mashhad's municipality for gentrification plan. Methodology of the study is based on questionnaire in order to ask residents about their attitudes to the gentrification of their neighborhood. Findings demonstrates that despite having a prolonged residence in this area and deep social and psychological connections to it, dwelling conditions of residents would be affected by direct economic pressures resulting from the gentrification  plan. This would impose heavy costs on the residents such as displacement, moving to other neighborhoods, alienage to the new neighbourhoods, lack of place attachment, place identity and sense of community in the new neighbourhoods. However, the positive effects of psychological dimension must be taken into consideration and residents' place attachment can be exploited in order to encourage them to contribute to the gentrification plan. On the other hand, municipality and  local government can prevent negative effects of gentrification plans and the original residents' displacement by adopting certain practical policies and increasing financial support. Identifying such policies requires extensive research and can open new windows for the future studies on gentrification plans.