Neighborhood Revitalization and the Practice of Evaluation in the United States: Developing a Margin Research Perspective

The dominant framework of neighborhood revitalization in the US that emerged in the 1990s is the comprehensive community-building approach based on a "theory of change" model. This framework posits that to improve neighborhoods & the quality of life of residents, needed programmatic efforts must be "resident-driven" & holistic in their focus. While these types of initiatives flourish, neighborhood revitalization often results in the displacement of low-income families & marginal return for existing residents. Why this occurs in the context of initiatives purporting to aid existing residents is underexamined in the evaluation literature. We argue that researchers engaged in documentation & evaluation of revitalization initiatives need a broader framework to examine heretofore marginalized issues. We use a "margin research" methodology to demonstrate how this alternative form provides a more expansive representation of revitalization activities & outcomes. 36 References. Adapted from the source document.