New Retail Capital and Neighborhood Change

Boutiques and Gentrification in New York City

Bibliographic Data

ID12765732
AuthorsSharon Zukin (0009-0001-6476-1779, University Graduate Center, corresponding author), Valerie Trujillo (City University of New York), Peter Frase (City University of New York), Danielle M Jackson (City University of New York), Tim Recuber (City University of New York), Abraham Jacob Walker (City University of New York)
Year2009
Volume8
Issue1
Pages47-64
Publication date2009-02-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCity and Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1535-6841 • E-ISSN: 1540-6040
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1111/j.1540-6040.2009.01269.x
OpenAlexW2036888139
LanguageEN
Citations received289
References cited17

Since the 1970s, certain types of upscale restaurants, cafés, and stores have emerged as highly visible signs of gentrification in cities all over the world. Taking Harlem and Williamsburg as field sites, we explore the role of these new stores and services (“boutiques”) as agents of change in New York City through data on changing composition of retail and services, interviews with new store owners, and discursive analysis of print media. Since the 1990s, the share of boutiques, including those owned by small local chains, has dramatically increased, while the share of corporate capital (large chain stores) has increased somewhat, and the share of traditional local stores and services has greatly declined. the media, state, and quasi–public organizations all value boutiques, which they see as symbols and agents of revitalization. Meanwhile, new retail investors—many, in Harlem, from the new black middle class—are actively changing the social class and ethnic character of the neighborhoods. Despite owners’ responsiveness to community identity and racial solidarity, “boutiquing” calls attention to displacement of local retail stores and services on which long–term, lower class residents rely and to the state's failure to take responsibility for their retention, especially in a time of economic crisis

Advertising · Business · Capital (architecture · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnic group · Gentrification · Geography · Market economy · Middle class · Political science · Sociology · Solidarity · State (computer science · Consumer Retail Behavior Studies · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Wine Industry and Tourism

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