The Fairy Tale Neighborhood of Rotterdam Gentrification and social identity in the Zwaanshalskwartier

Gentrification seems like a perfect instrument when institutional organizations want to upgrade the neighborhood from being deprived to a middle-class playground. The essence of gentrification is to attract the middle-class to an area in order to improve the neighborhood. However, this process has many implications, and this is especially evident to the entrepreneurs in the Zwaanshalskwartier, a neighborhood in the north of Rotterdam. The Zwaanshalskwartier has been experiencing a top-down gentrification process that was started by a social housing corporation. Nevertheless, this process has had mixed successes so far; both residential gentrification and commercial gentrification are on hold, which has been affecting the established entrepreneurs. In this case, the desired target group - the middle class - rarely visits the area and is not able to live there either, which has evidently led to friction between and with the entrepreneurs, and other actors involved. These tensions influence the social identity of the entrepreneurs; it is hard to shape and create a social identity where all entrepreneurs can identify with and are satisfied with as well. These tensions also affect the placemaking process. The creation of a quality place is not possible to establish, because there is no cooperation between the entrepreneurs and involved actors. The practice of top-down gentrification is therefore not always the perfect instrument for improving a deprived neighborhood. Many actors are involved and in order to keep the process going, institutions must ensure that there is little to no imbalance between the residential gentrification and commercial gentrification. To make a top-down gentrification process successful, the institutions responsible for the process should stay involved. This research highlights that the expectation of gentrification can eventually change to an organic process. This change, if all involved in a neighborhood can continue the gentrification on their own without interference from the one responsible for the start of the practice, cannot be confirmed.