2025 Theses Doctoral

Segmented Densification: Law, Value, and Conflict in an Emerging Ethnoburb

Huennekens, Joseph; Bou Akar, Hiba

This study investigates how densification proceeds in a place where built change overlaps with demographic change. Specifically, the dissertation looks at the town of Ramapo, New York, a municipality which has transformed over the last forty years from a low-density suburb with an anti-growth ethos into an Orthodox Jewish “ethnoburb” with a large number of multifamily buildings.

Ramapo is an extreme case of densification, of demographic change, and of political tumult. Yet, it is also a typical case, in the sense that this dense landscape was created within the same institutional and political-economic context as the rest of suburban New York. Using a single case study approach, this dissertation triangulates data from public meetings, planning documents, legal documents, newspaper articles, public permits, demographic data, and semi-structured interview transcripts to unpack how different actors worked to either further – or forestall – density upgrading.

The study narrows down on two key principles that shape the production of space in the town: the culturally-differentiated dynamics of value and the variable application of law. In turn, law and value structure real estate markets, local politics, development approvals, and land use litigation. These mechanisms channel housing demand only towards certain typologies, in certain places, marketed to certain groups – creating a condition that I label “segmented densification.”