"Stuck" or still?: place attachment and residential mobility in an urban resource desert.
What does attachment to place look like in neighborhoods marked by disinvestment? Drawing on nineteen in-depth interviews with Black public housing residents of a predominantly Black, resource-scarce urban neighborhood, this study explores the affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions of place...
| Published in: | Social Forces Vol. 105; no. 1; pp. 99 - 120 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Sep2026
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=196060142&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 196060142 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00377732 SFR jtl: Social Forces issn: 00377732 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2026 vid: 105 iid: 1 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 196060142 10.1093/sf/soaf163 ppf: 99 ppct: 21 formats: tig: atl: "Stuck" or still?: place attachment and residential mobility in an urban resource desert. aug: au: Satcher, Lacee A affil: Department of Sociology, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, McGuinn Hall 420, USA keyword: Black neighborhood copyrightHolder:University of North Carolina Chapel Hill copyrightYear:2026 inLanguage:en place attachment publisher:Oxford University Press residential mobility sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaf163 South urban inequality Black neighborhood copyrightHolder:University of North Carolina Chapel Hill copyrightYear:2026 inLanguage:en place attachment publisher:Oxford University Press residential mobility sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaf163 South urban inequality ab: What does attachment to place look like in neighborhoods marked by disinvestment? Drawing on nineteen in-depth interviews with Black public housing residents of a predominantly Black, resource-scarce urban neighborhood, this study explores the affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions of place attachment, the factors that drive attachment, and its relation to residential mobility desires. Findings reveal that place attachment is shaped less by physical infrastructure than by social ties, meaningful activities, and shared experiences. Residents' connections to place are complex, as explanations for mobility desires vary across feelings of duty, affection, frustration, and grief. While some residents desire to leave for better conditions, others exhibit strong sentimental connections that motivate them to stay. This study highlights place attachment as a socially embedded process, particularly in contexts of shared struggle and physical proximity, such as public housing. Findings challenge frameworks that interpret immobility solely as the result of structural constraint or mobility solely as escape, complicating deficit-based portrayals of urban Black life by foregrounding residents' emotions, memory, and agency. These findings advance theoretical understandings of Black placemaking, residential decision-making, and urban inequality, demonstrating the relational and recursive nature of human-place bonds under conditions shaped by racial capitalism. Findings also underscore the need for housing policy that recognizes emotional attachments to place and the social infrastructures that sustain them. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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