Can We Bring Culture into the Large-Scale Study of Gentrification? Assessing the Possibilities Using Geodemographic Marketing Data

Bibliographic Data

ID12438559
AuthorsMahesh Somashekhar (0000-0003-2447-0317, The University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume57
Issue5
Pages1312-1342
Publication date2020-05-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueUrban Affairs Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1078-0874 • E-ISSN: 1552-8332
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1078087420921459
OpenAlexW3029132321
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited66

Despite advances in quantitative methodology, many quantitative gentrification scholars rely on under-theorized and speculative presumptions about who gentrifiers are. This study uses Claritas Potential Rating Index for Zip Marketers (PRIZM), a geodemographic marketing data source on the lifestyles and consumer habits of U.S. households, to augment a Census-based analysis of Chicago neighborhoods that gentrified from 2000 to 2017. PRIZM data reveal that the households moving into gentrified neighborhoods represent a range of lifestyles, calling into question the attribution of “gentrifier” to any particular social group or demographic category. In some cases, despite having the same social class positions, gentrifiers pursue varying interests, suggesting they have different effects on neighborhoods. Once lifestyle is accounted for, many assumptions about gentrifiers on which quantitative studies are built become inadequate. The article’s conclusion not only proposes ways in which scholars can integrate geodemographic marketing data into future gentrification research, but it also outlines reasons to be cautious when using the data

Advertising · Business · Cartography · Census · Economic growth · Economics · Gentrification · Geography · Scale (ratio · Sociology · Demography · Urban Planning and Governance · Urban Transport and Accessibility · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies · Marketing

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