familification

Definition of Familification

(noun) “[A] process of neighborhood change whereby traditional families move into disadvantaged neighborhoods, with cultural, social, and economic consequences for those neighborhoods” (Goodsell 2013:861).

Example of Familification

• A large amount of young families move into a disadvantaged neighborhood but the local schools cannot adequately support the influx of so many new students, however as tax revenues increase, the school can accommodate them through building expansion and new hires.
  

Etymology of Familification

• Coined by Todd L. Goodsell in “Familification: Family, Neighborhood Change, and Housing Policy” (2013).

Familification Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: fam·i·li·fi·ca·tion

Audio Pronunciation

Usage Notes

• Plural: familifications
• A type of gentrification.

Related Quotations

• “As complicated and diverse as gentrification is, by bringing family into the discussion, the complexities multiply. Familification is an arena of paradoxes and complexities” (Goodsell 2013:862).
• “The results suggest that when municipal-led gentrification programs privilege families, they are based on prior beliefs about the economic and social roles that families play in neighborhoods. Thus, we should expect policies that emphasize familification—the process of neighborhood change by families moving in—to be an  increasingly common approach in cities where the nuclear family is symbolically significant in the local culture” (Goodsell 2013:862).

Additional Information

• Family and Kinship Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
• Bellush, Jewel, ed. 1967. Urban Renewal: People, Politics, and Planning: A Reader on the Political Controversies and Sociological Realities of Revitalizing the American City. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
• Brown-Saracino, Japonica, ed. 2010. The Gentrification Debates: A Reader. London: Routledge.
• Corburn, Jason. 2009. Toward the Healthy City: People, Places, and the Politics of Urban Planning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Fyfe, Nicholas R., and Judith T. Kenny, eds. 2005. The Urban Geography Reader. London: Routledge.
• Jacobs, Jane. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.
• Laska, Shirley Bradway, and Daphne Spain. 1980. Back to the City: Issues in Neighborhood Renovation. New York: Pergamon Press.
• Lees, Loretta, Elvin K. Wyly, and Tom Slater, eds. 2010. The Gentrification Reader. London: Routledge.
• Smith, Neil, and Peter Williams, eds. 1986. Gentrification of the City. London: Allen & Unwin.

Related Terms

• bedroom community
• class
• economics
• exurb
• gentrification
• suburb
• urban renewal
• urban sociology
• urbanization
• white flight

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Reference

Goodsell, Todd L. 2013. “Familification: Family, Neighborhood Change, and Housing Policy.” Housing Studies 28(6):845–68. doi:10.1080/02673037.2013.768334.

Cite the Definition of Familification

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