Looking Forward, Looking Back: Collective Memory and Neighborhood Identity in Two Urban Parks

Authors

Sofya Aptekar, CUNY School of Labor and Urban StudiesFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-12-2017

Abstract

Collective memory and narratives of local history shape the ways people imagine a neighborhood’s present situation and future development, processes that reflect tensions related to identity and struggles over resources. Using an urban culturalist lens and a focus on collective representations of place, I compare two nearby New York parks to uncover why, despite many similarities, they support different patterns of meaning making and use. Drawing on ethnographic observation, interviews, and secondary analysis, I show that multi-vocal and fragmented contexts of collective memory help explain the uneven nature of gentrification processes, with one park serving as its cultural fulcrum while the other is left at the sidelines.

Comments

This is the author's manuscript of an article originally published in Symbolic Interaction, available at DOI: 10.1002/SYMB.271.