Moral Repertoires of Gentrification: Intersectional Perspectives from Brussels

As cities become increasingly diverse, gentrification is experienced and interpreted in different ways. Although gentrification is widely understood as more than an economic process involving the influx of middle-class residents and the displacement of long-term residents, and increasingly as a cultural and moral issue, we still know little about how different groups of residents’ experience and evaluate it. This study addresses this gap by combining a cultural repertoires approach (Lamont & Thévenot, 2000; Swidler, 1986) with intersectionality (Collins, 2019) to examine how residents and frequent visitors in two Brussels neighborhoods, Lower-Molenbeek and Matonge, make sense of gentrification. Drawing on 56 walking interviews, sensory ethnography, and participatory theater, the analysis identifies five moral repertoires: Helping the Neighborhood, Hyper-Awareness and Moral Ambivalence, Structural Injustice, Colonial and Racialized Continuities, and The Flemish Invasion. These repertoires show that gentrification is understood in terms of morality (how urbanites justify themselves and others and interpret changes as matters of fairness, responsibility, and legitimacy or not), culture (aesthetic qualities, identity and belonging) and politics (power and inequality). The findings show that repertoires are unevenly accessible and credible across residents’ intersectional positions, shaped by class, race, migration status, and language. They not only justify interpretations of change but also motivate distinct forms of action, from civic engagement and ethical consumption to withdrawal and collective resistance. By foregrounding the moral and intersectional dimensions of gentrification, this study demonstrates how everyday evaluations of urban change reflect unequal distributions of moral authority and shape practices in superdiverse cities.