Forced Mobility: The Relocation of Public-Housing Residents in Atlanta

Katherine Hankins, Mechelle Puckett, Deirdre Oakley and Erin Ruel

Environment and Planning A, 2014, vol. 46, issue 12, 2932-2949

Abstract: In this paper we argue for the use of ‘mobility’ to describe not just bodily movement, travel, or transport, but as a concept that animates the constellation of policies and power relations that simultaneously move and spatially fix the urban poor. Using a framework developed by Creswell in 2010, in which mobility operates as ‘an entanglement of movement, representation, and practice’, this paper examines the mobility of relocated public-housing residents, who are forced to move as a result of the demolition of project-based housing in the city of Atlanta. It draws from Cresswell's conceptualization of the politics of mobility in terms of motive force, speed, rhythm, route, experience, and friction to more fully understand the mobilities and immobilities of the urban poor as they respond to the neoliberalization of housing policy in cities like Atlanta. Based on our study, we propose the addition of ‘resources’ to Cresswell's framework to more fully capture the importance of individuals' abilities to navigate the complexities of residential relocation, as they draw on a variety of social networks, skills, and faith dispositions. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews and the voice and photographic journals of relocated public-housing residents as they recorded their eviction and relocation process, this paper documents their circulation processes against the backdrop of the city's neoliberalizing housing policies.

Keywords: mobility; public housing; housing policy; resourcefulness; residential relocation; Atlanta (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a45742 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:46:y:2014:i:12:p:2932-2949

DOI: 10.1068/a45742

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning A
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().