Institutions, Agency, and Microscale Gentrification: A Tale of Two Neighborhoods

Recent institutional analysis of gentrification has focused on the dialectical interplay of structure and manager choice. A shortcoming of this work is its treatment of managers as subordinate to structural factors. This study clarifies the role of managers by describing the organizational influence of individual agency. An analysis of gentrification in Indianapolis demonstrates: (1) managers import into and generate from within goals which intersect with organizational directives: (2) institutional contexts are instrumental in facilitating gentrification, and (3) random events propel the localization of such contexts. Human agency forges institutional support which itself structures the unfolding of gentrification.