Race, entrepreneurship, and urban revitalization

Grant description:

This research project tackles questions about how gentrification-driven property redevelopment impacts black-owned businesses compared to white-owned businesses. Gentrification studies have largely ignored businesses in favor of examining residences, but commercial enterprises play a key role in shaping neighborhood conditions. Focusing on Detroit, this sociological study combines an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners with qualitative interviews and archival research to analyze how black-owned businesses’ growth, inclusion, and access to resources compares to that of white-owned businesses during periods of local redevelopment.