Disputed post-industrial landscapes : an enquiry into the "loft-living" cultural model in Montréal's Saint-Henri

The working-class neighbourhood of Saint-Henri in Montreal experiences social, economic and material transformations that see former sites of production changed into residential environments. The urban "revitalization" efforts have often translated into social discomfort, as projects intended to inject vitality into a fractured landscape have truncated and disrupted long-established spatial and social patterns. This thesis posits that the built environment is a material and cultural substance that mediates relationships between social and economic agents. The study employs a three-pronged analytical approach that Includes: firstly, a reading into the built environment itself; secondly, an analysis of the real-estate marketing discourse; and thirdly, through in-depth interviews, a documentation of the perceptions of newcomers and long-term residents, in order to delve into the cultural impacts of new development practices. Relying on Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and capital, and Henri Lefebvre's notions of space, this study explores the status of a "loft-living" cultural model in the wider field of gentrification. More specifically, it examines how the social and economic determinants of redevelopment strategies influence the spatial and social 'disputes' taking place in the former industrial landscapes of Montréal' Saint-Henri