TERRITORIAL VALORIZATION : How Positive Stereotypes Advance Suburban Water Insecurity in Detroit

Abstract Suburbs historically enabled and protected white middle‐class wealth in the United States; however, their more recent diversification has included a rise in suburban poverty. This article examines these dynamics through the issue of household water access—a feature of rising suburban impoverishment that deserves greater attention. For two years, the first author participated in a Detroit‐area advocacy group, working together to conduct interviews with a hard‐to‐reach group of suburban residents struggling to afford their water bills. These 15 interviews reveal that water insecurity affects households even in the most affluent suburbs and that access to water assistance and affordability programs has been inadequate and variable. We explain these findings by developing the concept of territorial valorization —the relational counterpart of territorial stigma—to capture the phenomenon whereby certain areas may fail to acknowledge and address social problems in an effort to maintain their historically positive reputations. While territorial valorization has the power to attract investment and resources, we theorize that its positive stereotypes can have negative consequences for residents who fail to meet their demands.