Contested Space: Design Principles and Regulatory Regimes in Mixed-Income Communities in Chicago. Issue 1 (July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chaskin, Robert J.; Joseph, Mark L.
• Editors: Lee, Barrett A.; Firebaugh, Glenn; Iceland, John; Matthews, Stephen A.
• Is Part Of: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Volume 660:Issue 1(2015:Jul.)
• Page Start: 136
• Page End: 154
• Publication Date: 2015-07
• Subjects: public housing -- integration -- social exclusion -- regulation; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- United States -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716215576113
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7162

Abstract

At the center of Chicago's large-scale public housing transformation is a stated emphasis on economic integration. Based on interviews, field observations, and documentary research in three new, mixed-income communities that were built on the footprint of former public housing developments in Chicago, this article examines how design choices and regulatory regimes militate against the effective integration of public housing residents in these contexts. We find that the strategies used to maintain social order contribute to redirecting the integrationist aims of the development policy toward a kind of incorporated exclusion, in which physical integration reproduces marginalization and leads more to withdrawal and alienation than to the engagement and inclusion of relocated public housing residents and other low-income residents.