Abstract
The gentrification literature has developed a quite extensive knowledge of the neighborhood experience of adult residents. However, the same is not true about children who are still understudied despite their visibility in many gentrified neighborhoods. This paper is aimed to fill this gap by examining the discourse, practice and sociability of children aged 9 to 11 in three gentrified neighborhoods of Paris, London and San Francisco. The analyses show that gentrified neighborhoods (when families are in play) are fully occupied by children, and that they are more exposed to “social diversity” than their parents and, more broadly, than the adults who live in these neighborhoods. Simultaneously the paper shows that the children’s ways of living and of co-existing in gentrified neighborhoods are marked by important differences. This results partly from their residential geographies and partly from their own social characteristics (social class, gender, age, position within the siblings...).
Keywords:
Gentrification; Neighborhood; Children; Social Differentiation; International Comparison
