New paper in Social & Cultural Geography journal

Jan Sýkora and Maria Horňáková have a new article in the journal Social & Cultural Geography. The article is titled ‘It is natural’: sustained place attachment of long-term residents in a gentrifying Prague neighbourhood. It was written together with Kirsten Visser and Gideon Bolt from Utrecht University. 

What is the paper about?

This paper examines how long-term residents of an inner-city neighbourhood in Prague undergoing residential and commercial gentrification have perceived and lived through its change. Specifically, it reveals how the ongoing changes influence residents’ place attachment.

The paper relies upon qualitative methodology using semi-structured in-depth interviews with long-term inhabitants (>20 years).

What are the results and conclusions?

• Empirical findings point to a strong and stable place attachment, despite ambivalent attitudes towards recent changes related to gentrification.
• The effect of gentrification on place attachment appears to be relatively limited. Many residents acknowledge that gentrification has reversed the deterioration that characterised the neighbourhood in the past.
• Moreover, negatively perceived changes to the neighbourhood are often not attributed primarily to the gentrification process but understood as a natural part of residents’ own ageing, wider societal changes, and historical development of the neighbourhood.
• The article highlights the need to investigate the personal, spatial and temporal contexts to comprehend the complex effects of gentrification on long-term residents.

Where to read it?

You can read and download the paper here.