“Locked out of Lynn”: A portrait of youth symbolic creativity in a gentrifying city

Abstract

In the United States, lower-income urban youth are coming of age in community contexts marked by widespread gentrification and deepening inequality. Yet, the initial changes associated with gentrification are subtle and are often celebrated in local media discourse—creating added uncertainty for youth as they endeavor to make sense of the changes they see. In this article, I investigate how youth from disparate backgrounds began to make sense of urban change through the lens of gentrification. Drawing on concepts from the field of cultural studies, I discuss three kinds of meaning-making that unfolded as the young people in my study began to co-construct shared understandings about the interlocking symbolic, political, and spatial inequalities that comprise gentrification. In turn, I argue that creating space for youth’s creative symbolic work can provide a forum for youth to develop the shared understandings needed to pursue collective action.