Managing territorial stigmatization from the ‘middle’: The revitalization of a post-industrial Business Improvement Area

Wacquant’s territorial stigmatization concept asserts that state/private actors mobilize discourses of stigmatization about specific areas in a city in order to legitimize spatial solutions in an attempt to solve complex political-economic problems. Unlike conventional studies of territorial stigmatization which delineate the concept between the production of stigma from ‘above’ and the resistance of stigma from ‘below,’ this paper contributes the concept of territorial stigmatization from the ‘middle’. Given their conceptualization as key players in the urban assemblage, we specifically examine how Business Improvement Areas (also known as Business Improvement Districts in the U.S) negotiate territorial stigmatization throughout the neighbourhood revitalization process. We highlight Business Improvement Areas’ unique middle position by drawing on data collected from interviews, media articles, and urban planning reports in London Ontario’s Old East Village over a fifteen-year period. In short, we find the use of territorial stigmatization by Business Improvement Areas is contingent upon their relationship within the urban assemblage (both actors from above and below).