Vandalism: A Potential Aftermath of Gentrification

It is taken for granted that humans and the environment interact with each other, which implies urban spaces affect people’s emotions and attitudes. Although gentrification has been generally perceived as the means of improving the quality of life in a neighborhood, studies reveal its detrimental effects which call for more attention. While gentrification is initially schemed to alleviate vandalism in the public sphere, it might foster vandalism through its political characteristics in the later stages of its application through interactional and physical aspects (Atkinson 307). The interactional vandalism may be one of the consequences of gentrification that seem apparent due to the proximity of different social classes in one particular area with dissimilar discourses. Nonetheless, the physical aspect of major shifts in space has been less understood (Johnson et al. 17). In this article, referring to Broken Windows theory on the physical aspect, I elaborate on a circular co-relationship among the aforementioned cases: Although Broken Windows invokes to nip aggression in the bud through amending policies such as gentrification, an indigested and radical act of gentrification itself initiates displacement and ends up in more aggressive vandalism which predominates the Broken Windows and eventuates to its advancement

Keywords:

gentrification , vandalism , Broken Windows theory , urban sociology , neighborhood , displacement