Studentification leads to significant socioeconomic and demographic changes in urban neighborhoods. Yet the phenomenon is understudied in midsized U.S. college towns. Using census data from 1990 to 2020, resident interviews, and archival materials, this study examines five neighborhoods surrounding Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The study explores demographic shifts, off-campus housing dynamics, and socioeconomic transformations in the five study neighborhoods. We identify the acquisition of residential property by parents of college-aged students, which we term student-parent homeownership, as a central mechanism of neighborhood transformation in Lubbock. By examining this process in a midsized U.S. college city, the study extends the studentification scholarship and contributes to ongoing debates about how parent-led housing acquisition reshapes urban neighborhoods. These findings contribute to the broader discourse on urban change and to the long-term study of how competition for urban space evolves across generations and national contexts.
This article investigates the configuration of social mixing and proximity within the peripheral neighborhoods of Arezzo, Italy-namely San Donato, Saione, Tortaia, and San Marco alla Sella-utilizing a student-led participatory mapping protocol that integrates fieldwork, qualitative observation, and digital visualization. The study involved university students mapping sociocultural, educational, religious, commercial, and recreational nodes, resulting in microscale "snapshots" that were subsequently synthesized into a comprehensive neighborhood-level analysis. The findings depict the area as a dense yet fragmented socio-spatial ecosystem, where everyday inclusion is maintained through a polycentric network of community hubs. The analysis underscores both the presence of hyperproximate social infrastructure and the persistence of gaps in visibility, coordination, and accessibility. Methodologically, this research contributes to discussions on collaborative mapping and data humanism by emphasizing lived experience and local knowledge while experimenting with digital platforms to render complex socio-spatial patterns both legible and narratively rich.
Dozens of locations across the United States were impacted by the development and deployment of American atomic weapons. Some of these places continue to change along with the world around them. Other sites remain in intentionally static space. Using a cultural landscape approach, this paper analyzes two such places that represent two broad groups of static atomic landscapes: 1) atomic testing sites; and 2) remnant sites for containment of stored materials and byproducts from the processing and extraction for and scientific testing of atomic technology. Influencing the static nature of such landscapes is a combination of intentional government-led efforts to monitor and keep such sites unchanged (to prevent potential contamination in the surrounding communities) and the remoteness, inaccessibility, and sometimes hidden nature of such locations. But another outcome is the creation of several largely stable, unchanging, distinct, and meaningful landscapes that reveal some of the less-known messages from the atomic age. Thus, even static spaces can be a dynamic force for placemaking for those who interact with the sites.
