CAPTURING DISPLACEMENT: A Dialectical Mixed-Methods Approach to the Study of Renoviction—A Case from Sweden

Abstract

In this article, we seek to contribute to the understanding and measurement of displacement through a dialectical mixed-methods study grounded in a dialogue between quantitative and qualitative approaches throughout the entire research process. Guided by a desire for social justice for the populations at stake, this dialogue is anchored in a social constructivist approach in which an intersectional understanding of power relations within capitalism, racism and patriarchy informs the methods used, and the interaction between them. The article examines the rent-raising renovations (‘renovictions’) in rental apartments in Kvarngärdet and Gränby, two working-class neighborhoods in Uppsala, Sweden. Intertwining ethnographic and statistical methods, we reveal how displacement affected the lives of the residents in complex ways, even though the neighborhoods were not gentrified. Our approach demonstrates how a combination of methods employed through a continuous exchange between researchers who work with different tools but share similar ontological standpoints can provide insights on displacement which cannot easily be captured. The results of the study are presented in three dimensions: the epistemological, the methodological and the empirical, concluding that a social constructivist dialectical mixed-methods approach is needed to bridge ontological gaps between methods, and to capture the intricate aspects involved in displacement processes.