Becoming Canada: Neighborhood Change and Resident Struggle To Belong in Metro Vancouver
Research Category:
Regional, Urban and Community Development
The proposed dissertation project examines resident struggle for belonging in the context of neighborhood change in Metro Vancouver. It is based on the premises that cities receiving a large number of foreign residents – long term or short term, legal or illegal – are multiethnic, multicultural, and multi-lingual and that effective management of resultant social and cultural changes is contingent on collective, collaborative efforts among governments, civic organizations and local residents.
As patterns of social, cultural and economic changes manifest themselves differently across space and time, my research focus on two areas in Metro Vancouver for a case study: east Vancouver neighborhoods (excluding downtown east side and Chinatown where residents are homogenous with regard to their socio-demographic characteristics) and Richmond areas along No. 3 Road. The historical period my research will focus on is from the 1960s to the present. The central research question regards resident struggle to belong will be broken down to two interrelated aspects: what are the services and programs available in the neighborhoods that help build inclusive communities; what are the informal space in the neighborhoods for residents to build social networks and what are the roles of such networks in relation to civic participation.
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