Neighborhood Effects

A large body of research documents the difficulty congregations have in creating and sustaining racially diverse memberships. However, little scholarship explores the overlapping consequences of racial change in congregations and neighborhoods over time. Since the number of all-white neighborhoods has fallen sharply in recent decades, we ask in this study: what are the consequences of racial change in congregations and neighborhoods on congregational attendance? We employ longitudinal data from over 20,000 United Methodist congregations between 1990 and 2010 paired with census tract data for the same time period. We use growth curve models to test three hypotheses derived from Organizational Ecology Theory. While Methodist churches have decreasing attendance, we find that racial diversity inside a church is associated with higher average attendance by year and across years. Outside a church, percent white in the neighborhood positively predicts attendance , at least in the short term. Both white and nonwhite Methodist churches have higher attendance when located in white neighborhoods; white churches in nonwhite neighborhoods fare the worst. Our conclusion discusses these patterns and highlights the complexities of accommodating racial differences in congregations amidst ongoing demographic changes outside their doors.

Research suggests that growing up in more affluent neighborhoods improves educational attainment. But would it help adolescents to move to relatively more affluent neighborhoods, as theories of neighborhood effects anticipate? Does it depend on the magnitude of the change of context? To answer these questions, we use data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey and the 1990 Census to estimate models using propensity score methods. We found that both upward mobility and change of context during adolescence had small effects on long-term educational attainment that varied by race, socioeconomic status, transfer status, and the social class of starting neighborhoods. Importantly, upward moves and positive changes in context reduced African-Americans' chances of completing high school.

RESUMEN: Los barrios periféricos del desarrollismo franquista atraviesan procesos de diversificación y precarización similares, acogiendo hoy a una población multicultural y con posiciones de clase populares. El estudio cuantitativo de los cambios sociodemográficos en dos barrios de Zaragoza y Madrid es complementado, mediante una aproximación cualitativa, con el análisis de las estrategias vecinales, tanto colectivas como individuales. Estas se despliegan, con mayor o menor éxito, ante la ausencia de unas políticas públicas de vivienda que frenen el deterioro urbanístico y social de estos territorios. Concluimos que los contextos políticos locales, tanto institucionales como asociativos, propician diferentes ritmos en la evolución de la precarización de la vivienda y sus habitantes. En ambos casos, estas fases convergen en escenarios de reperiferización.

PALABRAS CLAVE: Precarización; Vivienda; Multiculturalidad; Redes; Fragmentación.

ABSTRACT: The peripheral neighborhoods of Francoist “desarrollismo” period are going through similar diversification and precarization processes. Nowadays, they are the place of residence of a multicultural population with popular class positions. The quantitative study of the sociodemographic changes in two neighborhoods of Zaragoza and Madrid is complemented, through a qualitative approach, with the analysis
of neighborhood strategies, both collective and individual. These strategies are deployed with diverse
success, and in the absence of public housing policies that could stop the urban and social
deterioration of these territories. We conclude that local political contexts, both institutional and associative,
foster different rhythms in the evolution of the precariousness of housing and its inhabitants. In
both cases, these stages converge in scenarios of re-peripheralization.

Keywords: Precarization; Housing; Multiculturalism; Networks; Fragmentation.

The arts have long played a role in debates around gentrification and displacement, yet their roles and impacts as change agents are not clear-cut. According to the standard account, artists facilitate gentrification and ultimately engender the displacement of lower income households, but more recent research complicates the accepted narrative. This article seeks to untangle the relationship between the arts, gentrification and displacement through a statistical study of neighbourhood-level arts industry activity within large US regions. The findings indicate that the standard arts-led gentrification narrative is too generalised or simply no longer applicable to contemporary arts-gentrification processes. Rather, the arts have multiple, even conflicting relationships with gentrification and displacement that depend on context and type of art. These results have important implications for how we study the role of the arts in neighbourhood change and for how governments approach the arts and creative industries in urban policy.

Es posible definir este libro como un estudio sobre el patrimonio y la identidad barrial en un sector tradicional de la ciudad de Valdivia a partir del color, pero también es correcto referirse al mismo libro como una aproximación innovadora acerca de la historia del uso del color en la disposición del territorio y la composición social de una ciudad. La conjunción de ambas definiciones se observa, sin necesidad de mayor análisis, como un hecho inédito en la historia de los estudios sobre patrimonio e identidad espacial.
Fuera de esta característica en particular, los autores presentan un texto muy bien armado, que incluye una valiosa sección teórica metodológica sobre percepción, color en la arquitectura, identidad patrimonial  y dinámicas sociales en los barrios que, enseguida, se complementa con un trabajo historiográfico sobre el asentamiento humano en Valdivia y en el sector Isla Teja.

Cet article porte sur les formes de territorialisation de la fraction moyenne des couches moyennes de population dans la ZAC des Terrasses-de-Bodets, à Montlouis-sur-Loire, une petite ville inscrite dans le périurbain tourangeau. Nous proposons d’étudier le périurbain à
travers les valeurs résidentielles qui caractérisent ces catégories sociales, en considérant que l’intérêt de cet exemple se trouve dans la politique d’aménagement municipale, volontariste et imprégnée des normes de développement durable et de mixité sociale. Si les 42 entretiens semi-directifs menés pour cette étude confirment les résultats de travaux antérieurs sur les aspirations des populations périurbaines autour du triptyque tiers-espace / propriété / pavillon,
ils mettent également en évidence une forte demande de proximité (proximité de Tours, des centralités, des espaces de loisir, etc.) qui devient ainsi une valeur résidentielle essentielle, ainsi qu’une sociabilité de voisinage qui donne tout son sens au « quartier ». Cette réflexion
permet d’approfondir la connaissance des couches moyennes à partir de leurs désirs en matière d’habiter, mais elle permet aussi de contribuer aux réflexions sur les différenciations des espaces périurbains et leur hétérogénéité sociale.

Abstract
The article describes different lifestyle choices made by the middle class population in the Terrasses-de-Bodets district of Montlouis-sur-Loire, a small suburb of the French city of Tours, in the central part of France, and the effects of those choices on people’s use of the land and feelings of identification with their neighbourhood (a concept sometimes described as “territorialization”). We first examine the peri-urban space through the prism of the values held by residents belonging to this social class, recognizing that the significance of the example lies  in the proactive municipal planning policy, grounded in principles of sustainable development and social diversity. Using the example of the planning zone (known in France as a “ZAC”) covering Montlouis-sur-Loire, our article draws on 42 semi-structured interviews and confirms results observed in previous studies – showing the extent to which the principal aspirations of residents centre around a triple goal: the desire for “third-spaces”, for ownership and for detached homes. The interviews also reveal a high demand (for proximity to Tours, requirements for centralities, and for recreational areas, etc.). This demand constitutes a fundamental value for residents, as is neighbourhood sociability, in that both give real meaning to the concept of the neighbourhood. An analysis of this kind helps to further our understanding of the middle classes through their lifestyle choices, while also contributing to our reflections on differentiation in peri-urban communities and their social heterogeneity.