Collective memory and Gentrification in the Deeply Divided Cities of Belfast and Montreal

Abstract

This dissertation examines the intersection of collective memory and gentrification, and the ways in which this intersection shapes urban landscapes and social dynamics in “deeply divided cities.” Engaging with Henri Lefebvre’s theories and contemporary debates on gentrification, this dissertation articulates how gentrification erases local memories and manufactures particular interpretations of past nationalist conflicts, promoting capitalist peace. It also examines “haunting” as a critical, yet underutilized, concept in the gentrification literature. Haunting, as an expression of subaltern agency, challenges dominant neoliberal narratives by conjuring up community histories that are being erased by them. It proposes the concept of “the right to urban memory” as a normative and ethical ground on which communities can reclaim their histories in the face of gentrification. I articulate this right through a comparative analysis of Montréal’s Sud-Ouest and Belfast’s Titanic Quarter (TQ). Both cities have been shaped by their colonial pasts and presents, and experienced deindustrialization, high unemployment, and social unrest resulting from nationalist conflicts. The rise of state-seeking nationalist movements in both cities is intricately linked to deindustrialization.

The fieldwork for this comparative research was conducted using a multidisciplinary qualitative approach, including walking interviews, visual analysis, and archival research. I gathered real-time insights and personal stories from residents through walking interviews, and visual analysis provided resources to illuminate how collective memory has shaped spaces in urban and symbolic landscapes within the boroughs under study, especially how, under the directive of neoliberal peace, it has been simplified and altered for marketization. Through archival research, I traced the histories of each city and the evolution of urban spaces.

The analysis of Montréal’s Sud-Ouest demonstrates how nationalist restructuring during the Quiet Revolution transformed its memory landscape, and how the transition to a Québécois nation involved sanitizing working-class histories to appeal to gentrifiers, while also erasing the history of Black communities and Indigenous peoples in the neighbourhoods. In Belfast, the post-1998 peace agreement transition saw capitalist peace projects like the TQ, which sanitized the history of the working-class communities and limited their access to it. This gentrified memory landscape is now encroaching on East Belfast, further displacing historical working-class communities. This research underscores struggles over memory alongside other forms of struggles over neoliberal urban capitalism. Furthermore, it shows the evolving ethno-national and cultural power dynamics and the complex interplay of memory politics with it in gentrified/gentrifying places, illustrating the multifaceted nature of urban restructuring driven by gentrification.