Citation

Perry EM. Built Environ. (1978) 2021; 47(1): 13-30.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Alexandrine Press)

DOI

10.2148/benv.47.1.13

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

While mounting evidence demonstrates that tensions and differences in diverse neighbourhoods are managed in ways that largely reproduce existing inequalities, processes of conflict can unsettle spatially embedded power relations. Drawing on a three-year ethnographic study of Riverwest, a racially and economically mixed neighbourhood in the mid-sized U.S. city of Milwaukee, I examine the role of everyday battles over the uses of space in the production of a dynamic, negotiated social order. While block-level clashes sometimes reinforce oppressive and marginalizing practices, they also create opportunities for dissent, resistance to assimilation pressures, and challenges to the legitimacy of dominant norms. I argue that a set of material and cultural neighbourhood conditions facilitate the transformative potential of conflict.

Language: en

Keywords

CONFLICT RESOLUTION; ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY; LIVE AND LET LIVE; NEIGHBOURHOOD DIVERSITY; NEIGHOURHOOD CONFLICT; RIVERWEST, MILWAUKEE