This week, I took a big step forward by gathering more resources for my research project.
I met with Beth Hoppe at the library for some recommendation on resources and she pointed me in a few different directions. Two that I have not yet explored are the Scopus and Sociological Abstract databases. It seems like these will be useful once the angle I’m approaching for my project becomes clearer. I like that I can see who has cited sources and what other sources have similar bibliographies. I also did not know that Jstor did not show more recent readings in general. She also gave me the advice to zoom out and pick a path before getting specific with journal articles. The other resource I explored was the Bowdoin Library CBB search which lists books and their shared terms.
Using the search I found a few very relevant and timely books including:
Shaw, Randy. Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. Oakland: University of California Press, 2018.
Dougherty, Conor. Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America. New York: Penguin Press, 2020.
Schuerman, Matthew L. Newcomers: Gentrification and its Discontents. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2019.
Baranski, John. Housing the City by the Bay: Tenant Activism, Civil Rights and Class Politics. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019.
I also found a book from 2013 which I may look at if I have time and collect relevant information in more recent books that I can cross examine:
Beitel, Karl. Local Protest, Global Movements: Capital, Community and State in San Francisco. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2013.
This last book I found is unlikely for me to use but is very interesting:
Rebecca Solnit, Hollow City: The Siege of San Francisco and the Crisis of American Urbanism.
The book mentioned above is a photo essay from the 1990s until 2000 and has images of the destruction of affordable housing in San Francisco. It is political, has a great analysis on gentrification and takes into account race and class. I like that it is both a primary and secondary source. In Generation Priced Out there are testimonies that point to the displacement and protest of tenants in a larger social context. It is becoming clearer that my essay must include history. For example, many of the tenants interviewed in some chapters were long term residents that have been fighting against rent increases and evictions since the 90s as new landlords have bought their buildings. Some people have been able to stay where they live while others have been displaced. In this book there are also very good general statistics on the increase in rent and population and decrease in affordable housing units. The book Newcomers has three chapters on San Francisco exploring 20 year intervals starting in the 1960s until 2018.
My plan for this week is to read at least three chapters of any of my books and take notes. I would like to formulate a good guiding research question and thesis by Tuesday night. On Wednesday I plan to meet with Professor Greene to discuss my progress.
Within the next two weeks I will make another appointment with Beth Hoppe and consider reaching out to Professor Klingle or Professor Pearlman for general help. Making these meetings will help keep me accountable to getting progress done on my project.