'We want to do it differently': Resisting gentrification in Houston's Northern Third Ward

摘要

This case study describes the beginning stages of community mobilization in highly market-driven Houston, Texas, and the gentrifying Northern Third Ward, one of the city's oldest African American communities. The primary question is how can residents mobilize and resist gentrification in places with an extraordinarily weak community development tradition? Drawing on ethnographic research, the case study illuminates mobilization as an important first step in the community development process that creates a space for dialogue, consciousness raising, and both horizontal and vertical linkages to increase collective action, power, and progress toward the broader movement for social justice.