Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose: Gentrification and Filtering Theory
Dr. Revel Sims
Assistant Professor
Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture
Chican@ and Latin@ Studies Program
University of Wisconsin-Madison
This presentation explores the dynamics of gentrification and the impact of housing market constraints on racially marginalized communities. Drawing on Revel Sims’ expertise in gentrification and displacement, the talk delves into how “confinement” affects racialized households—those trapped in neighborhoods where high property values and limited housing vacancies restrict mobility and deepen socio-spatial inequality. Through a mixed-methods approach, Sims combines community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) with quantitative analysis to reveal how these structural limitations intersect with urban displacement patterns in regions like Southern California and Madison.
Revel Sims is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture and the Chican@ and Latin@ Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He is also an affiliate in the Department of Geography, the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP), and the Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies (CommNS). Using a mixed-methods approach that involves both community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) and quantitative analysis of original and secondary data, Revel Sims’ work focuses on the questions of gentrification and displacement. His empirical investigations and theoretical contributions to the question of urban displacement in Southern California and the Madison urban region have been published in several journals, including Urban Geography, the Journal of Planning Education and Research, and Housing Policy Debate.