Release date: Aug. 9, 2005
Contact: Beverly Cox Clark at 404-712-8780 or beverly.clark@emory.edu

Emory Launches National Study of Gentrification

Little research has been done on the social impact of gentrification—what happens in a community between old and new residents, and how the social fabric is rewoven. In response to these issues, Emory has launched a major national study on gentrification that will focus on neighborhoods within Atlanta, along with additional data collected from cities across the country.

Led by Emory's Office of University-Community Partnerships and its Kenneth Cole Fellowship in Community Building and Social Change, the grassroots research promises to bring a new understanding of the challenges neighborhoods face, and the most promising practices in mediating the social stresses brought by economic forces.

The Cole Fellows' goal is to provide their community partner—the Atlanta Alliance for Community Development Investment—with a blueprint for positively managing gentrification. That work also will serve as a foundation for the national study, which is being undertaken with support from NeighborWorks America and its southern district office in Atlanta. NeighborWorks America is a nonprofit organization created by Congress to provide financial support, technical assistance and training for community-based revitalization efforts.

This summer, four Kenneth Cole Fellows hit the streets of two Atlanta neighborhoods. They worked in the Old Fourth Ward, home to the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District, and Cabbagetown, a former mill village near downtown, to examine the interaction, cooperation and conflict among new and old residents, and how community-based organizations can address both. They've held focus groups, conducted surveys and met with dozens of residents—from wealthy developers to people born and raised in the neighborhood—to learn firsthand what's happening on the block.

For the next step, two Emory political scientists are surveying six other Atlanta neighborhoods, and will interview community leaders and housing and community development officials in cities around the country. The national survey will identify:

• neighborhoods undergoing gentrification;

• the level, intensity and type of gentrification underway; and most important,

• the social stresses generated by gentrification and the local responses undertaken—if any—to address them.

This work of the Kenneth Cole Fellows continues the community-building successes of previous classes of the fellowship, which has become a national model for combining academics with community-based collaborative problem solving. The goal of the comprehensive, 12-month program is to prepare undergraduates for careers that improve the community. The 12-week summer field experience is the keystone of the fellowship, providing the students with hands-on experience to put theory into practice.

Emory launched the fellowship program in 2002 with a lead gift from the Kenneth Cole Foundation. Cole, chairman, CEO and creative director of Kenneth Cole Productions Inc. and a trustee of the Kenneth Cole Foundation, is a 1976 graduate of Emory and a university trustee. For more information on the Kenneth Cole Fellows Program, go to http://oucp.emory.edu/Info/kennethcolefellow.html.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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