John Joe (or J.J.) Schlichtman. I am a professor and student of community sociology. My writing centers on the potential for equitable, just, asset-based community development. It aims to connect our understanding of what seem like big processes such as globalization and gentrification to everyday lives on the street level. I study transformation: how people and groups resist or exploit it, the decisions residents make in navigating it, its influence on the urban landscape, and the various paths governments take to influence it.
The New York Times succinctly captured the goal of my co-authored book Gentrifier (2017): to “break the third wall of social science…” My second book Showroom City: Real Estate and Resistance in the Furniture Capital of the World (2022) examines local urban decision-making within the globalizing world in my twenty year study of High Point, North Carolina. Bloomberg CityLab suggested that while High Point’s furniture fashion “claim to fame may be esoteric…the story is, in a way, a timeless one.” My third book (2026) seeks to establish a framework for debates on just community development.
Besides The New York Times and Bloomberg CityLab, my research and perspectives have been discussed in such media outlets as Next City, NPR, Chicago Tribune, The Independent (UK), and Architectural Digest.
I am grateful to participate in several strong communities. At DePaul, where I serve on the university’s Faculty Council, I teach courses such as Urban Sociology, the Community-Based Seminar on Housing Policy, Global Cities, The Right to Chicago, and Qualitative Methods. In Chicago, I enjoy working with community organizations and engaging in policy discussions. In my field, I serve as a board member of the vibrant, global Research Committee 21 (RC21) for Urban and Regional Development. I also oversee another vibrant and global—but virtual—alliance nearing 80,000 members: ‘Urbanist’ on LinkedIn.
I received my M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology with an emphasis in urban sociology from New York University under the supervision of Harvey Molotch and Neil Brenner.
Contact:
j.j.schlichtman@depaul.edu
(773) 325 4093 
990 West Fullerton, 1st Floor, #1201 / Chicago, Illinois 60625
Open office hours from 21:20 to 22:00 UTC on M/W
In the News:
Essays:
- Displaced—Even Without Moving – Next City
- Four Types of Gentrifiers You See in Your Neighborhood – Next City
- The Perfect ‘Urban’ Suburb Is Going to be…Homewood? – Chicago Tribune
- The Complicated Business of Going Out to Eat in a Gentrifying Neighborhood – Next City
- How the Unwilling Gentrifier Buys a Home – Next City
- What Downtown High Point Needs Next – Greensboro News & Record
- Unlocking ‘GENTRIFIER’ – University of Toronto Press
Select Academic Writing:
- “Invasions” in GENTRIFIER (2017) John Joe Schlichtman, Jason Patch, and Marc Lamont Hill. University of Toronto Press.
- “Big City Problems: Private Equity Investment, Transnational Users, and Local Mobilization in the Small City.” (2020) City and Community, 19: 98-131.
- “The Sociological ‘Urban’” (2018) Defining the Urban: Interdisciplinary and Professional Perspectives edited by Deljana Iossifova, Christopher Doll, and Alexandros Gasparatos. Routledge.
- “Gentrifier? Who, Me? Interrogating the Gentrifier in the Mirror. (2013) JJ Schlichtman and Jason Patch. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 38 (4), 1491-1508.
On Twitter:
Tweets by JJSchlichtman