Project Director

Dakhlia, Sami

Department Examiner

Bonnal, Michael

Department

Dept. of Economics

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

While much research has been carried out on the topic of gentrification over the past several decades, little to no economic research has been conducted on the potential presence of coercion within the process. In this paper, we define coercion as any attempts by third parties, whether government or private entities, to artificially accelerate the natural housing cycle. In studying this, we examine Lincoln Park as a case study, a Chattanooga neighborhood that was once a bastion of culture and security for the Southern African American community, by employing a two-pronged approach. On the qualitative front, we interview community and city leaders, as well as employ investigative journalism in researching the existing literature, including books and newspapers, on the history of Lincoln Park. Quantitatively, we build and conduct a survey among the residents of the neighborhood, allowing us to run empirical analyses upon the data. Combing the two approaches, we construct a holistic study of the potential presence of coercion within Lincoln Park’s housing and development process. In the end, while we find examples of coercive efforts on the part of the city of Chattanooga as it relates to Lincoln Park as recently as the past decade, these efforts do not seem aimed at accelerating the natural housing cycle, meaning they do not meet our criteria of coercion. Thus, as we have defined it, we do not find coercion within the context of Lincoln Park’s gentrification process.

Acknowledgments

I would like to sincerely thank my Faculty Advisor and mentor, Dr. Sami Dakhlia, for all that he has done for me throughout my undergraduate journey. I would also like to thank URACE for the SEARCH Awards grant they bestowed upon this research; it proved critical to the success of this endeavor.

IRB Number

22-128

Degree

B. S.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Science.

Date

5-2023

Subject

Gentrification--Tennessee--Chattanooga; Gentrification--Economic aspects; African Americans--Housing

Keyword

gentrification; coercion; housing and development; Lincoln Park; Chattanooga

Discipline

Regional Economics

Document Type

Theses

Extent

60 leaves

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

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