More Than a Property: Place-based Meaning Making and Mobilization on Social Media to Resist Gentrification

In this study, we examined the successes and challenges in online framing activities specific to place-based activism resisting urban redevelopment and gentrification. We conducted a qualitative analysis of online discourse on Twitter around the redevelopment of an old manufacturing district in Seoul, South Korea, and investigated how the place-based nature of the contested situation complicated the process of public mobilization. We found that the collective meaning-making based on individuals' existing relationships to a contested place led the citizens who were neither the tenants nor property owners in the area to find the struggle relevant to their lives and to establish their agency in an effort to influence redevelopment policy. We argue that the capacity of online discourse that alters the social meaning of place and its ownership opens up an opportunity for technology to better support grassroots efforts to improve social justice in urban development and policy-making processes. Yet, the disputes we found from the online discussions revealed some limitations of online discourse in place-based activism, which led us to suggest research agendas for the CSCW community to address the limitations.