Adolescent Leisure Opportunities in a Gentrifying Community

Peter Morden -Concordia University. SRG 2006

Français

 

2009

Leisure participation can help foster healthy youth development through their meaningful and continued engagement in recreational opportunities. In economically marginalized areas,
to achieve such aims community and public sector organizations have developed services
for local adolescents, primarily in order to mitigate the effects of their limited access to the commercial market. However, the effects of inner-city gentrification upon the leisure lifestyles, desires and perceptions of adolescents, and the implications for the allocation of scarce leisure services, require further study.

The initial objective of this study has been to examine the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy
in Montreal, identified in the literature as prototypical of inner-city gentrification. Through the completion of detailed physical and socio-demographic analyses of the community, potential implications for adolescent leisure and leisure services provision have been posited that will inform subsequent stages of inquiry.

As is illustrated in the Canadian census data collected over the past quarter-century,
an asymmetric distribution of population change has led to markedly dissimilar population clusters residing within the community. Implications of overall community change include altered demand for services and infrastructure development while implications of the observed clustering within the neighborhood include effects of social comparison and social conflict
and also perceptions related to appropriate and accessible leisure spaces.

Three main components of the social system may affect the realization of such implications
and will be the subject of study in subsequent stages of this research. First, there are the values, beliefs, and practices of the gentrifying population. Second is the willingness of leisure service providers to alter their provisions based on the expressed needs of a differently constituted and growing population. The third element in the equation of change is the indigenous youth population itself and their ability to have their needs heard and catered to by public and community serving agencies.

 

2008

Leisure can be one domain of life wherein healthy youth development can be fostered through meaningful and continued engagement. In economically marginalized areas, in order to foster such positive development public services agencies have developed many opportunities for local adolescents in order to mitigate the effects of adolescents’ limited market access. However, inner-city gentrification and its effects upon the leisure lifestyles, desires and perceptions of adolescents within a gentrifying community, and the implications for leisure services provision, are areas requiring study.

The initial objective of this study has been to examine the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal, identified in the literature as prototypical of inner-city gentrification. Through the completion of detailed analyses of the community, potential implications for adolescent leisure and the leisure services provision have been posited that will inform subsequent stages of inquiry.

From the relatively socially and economically homogenous population described in the 1971 census, the asymmetric distribution of population change has led to drastically different population clusters residing within the community. Implications of overall community change include altered demand for services and infrastructure development while implications of the observed clustering within the neighborhood include effects of social comparison and social conflict and also perceptions related to appropriate and accessible leisure spaces.

There are three main components which may affect the realization of such implications and which will be the subject of study in subsequent stages of this research. First, there are the values, beliefs, and practices of the gentrifying population. Second is the willingness of leisure service providers to alter their provisions based on the expressed needs of a differently constituted and growing population. The third element in the equation of change is the indigenous youth population itself and their ability to have their needs heard and catered to by public and community serving agencies.

2007

By providing opportunities to develop skills and competencies while deriving satisfaction through activity, leisure can be one domain of life wherein healthy youth development can be fostered through meaningful and continued engagement. Particularly in economically marginalized areas where youth may not have access to much of the commercial leisure market, public services agencies and community groups have developed many programs and opportunities for local adolescents in order to mitigate the effects of less-then-full market participation.

However, many impoverished, inner-city areas are experiencing gentrification which includes
the displacement of low-income residents by an influx of more affluent individuals. The
displacement effects of gentrification have been quite extensively studied; however, the broader cultural effects within the gentrifying community have been significantly less well examined. In addition, gentrification’s specific effects upon the leisure lifestyles, desires and perceptions of adolescents within the context of a gentrifying community, and the implications of gentrification for the leisure services infrastructure, remain to be disclosed.

Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine adolescent leisure opportunity and adolescents’
perceptions related to such opportunity, using the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal
as a case study. An additional purpose of this study is to provide a platform from which
adolescents’ views may be heard in the broader community thereby informing and initiating a
dialogue with community residents, leisure programmers and policy makers concerning the
development of leisure resources and opportunities in their community.

This research will contribute to understanding the dynamics of social change, specifically the
community cultural change that may emerge as a result of gentrification. Results of this
research will be of benefit to leisure services providers and policy makers by bringing to the fore the benefits of and challenges to adolescents’ access to developmentally positive leisure
opportunities and resources in a gentrifying community.

SCRI 2007 Presentation Slides

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