Neighborhood Effects

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 The findings indicate that the standard arts-led gentrification narrative is too generalised or simply no longer applicable to contemporary arts-gentrification processes.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.

Entre las características que definen la actual coyuntura político-económica de las ciudades a nivel global, especialmente en los denominados "barrios conflictivos", encontraríamos el extremo sometimiento del espacio vecinal a la disciplina del valor de cambio. Se trataría de estrategias destinadas a garantizar que distintos sectores del capital inmobiliario, turístico, financiero, etc., puedan reorganizar a su antojo el espacio físico y simbólico de estos emplazamientos en orden a extraer de ellos potenciales plusvalías. Sin embargo, como lugares de lo popular, estos “barrios corsarios” constituirían  auténticos baluartes desde donde sabotear la imposición sistemática y burguesa de una ciudad exclusiva y, por ende, excluyente.

The incidence of childhood vaccine refusal tends to cluster in space, leading to localized dangerously low levels of herd immunity for preventable diseases. In this paper, we seek to answer two questions: Where are the clusters of unusually high and low rates of childhood vaccination refusal in California? And, what are the demographic, socioeconomic, and political characteristics of those places? Using Kulldorf's spatial scan statistic to analyze data on personal belief exemptions (PBEs) from immunization for schools (kindergarten level) in California from 2012-2015, and statistical analysis of census and political data, we found that high and low PBE clusters differed significantly in demographic, socioeconomic, and political characteristics. Areas with high rates of vaccine refusal in California are wealthier, less densely populated, and less ethnically diverse, with higher levels of educational attainment, lower proportion of immigrants, and lower degrees of environmental health risk and social vulnerability. While high-PBE clusters were generally more conservative politically, we did not find a straightforward alignment between political orientation and PBE rates that was consistent across all clusters. Community-level differences in social norms, information-sharing, risk perception, and social/political empowerment may explain geographical variation in vaccine refusal rates, although further research on this issue is necessary.

Background: Alcohol outlet density has been linked to rates of substantiated maltreatment both cross-sectionally and over time. Most of these studies have been conducted in Anglo-Saxon countries, especially in the U.S., but other countries, where alcohol outlets and alcohol consumption may have different social meanings, are clearly underrepresented in the literature. Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze whether alcohol outlet density is associated with neighborhood-level child maltreatment risk in a South-European city. Participants and setting: A longitudinal study was conducted in the city of Valencia (Spain). As spatial units, we used 552 census block groups. Family units with child maltreatment protection measures from 2004 to 2015 were geocoded (n = 1799). Methods: A Bayesian spatio-temporal autoregression model was conducted to model the outcome variable. Results: Results indicated that, once controlled for other neighborhood-level characteristics, the influence of off-premise density and restaurant/cafe density were not relevant, while bar density showed a negative relationship with child maltreatment risk. Spatially lagged alcohol outlet variables were also not relevant in the model. Conclusions: Our results suggest the importance of taking into account the cultural influences on the relationship between alcohol outlets and child maltreatment risk. Future cross-cultural research is needed for better understanding this relationship.

Urban Studies, 2011. This paper presents initial findings from longer-term transdisciplinary research concerning the social dynamics of urban neighbourhoods. It examines the spatial clustering of ethnicity and class in neighbourhoods over urban history, from Bronze Age Mesopotamia to contemporary cities. Fourteen distinct drivers of social clustering are identified, grouped under the headers of macro-structural forces, the state, local regimes and institutions, and bottom–up processes. The operation of these processes is examined through three historical and three archaeological case studies of clustering. It is concluded that: clustering is a common, but not universal, attribute of cities; there is much variation in clustering patterns, both within and between cities and urban traditions; and, consideration of a wide variety of drivers is required to understand historical and modern residential dynamics.

Quarto Oggiaro, Milano. Pochi quartieri delle città del Nord Italia sono considerati così emblematici per il cumulo di problemi e di svantaggi sociali. Poche periferie sono state così stigmatizzate e discusse attraverso i mass media. Eppure Quarto Oggiaro non è solo questo. Nato per accogliere l’immigrazione del boom economico, il quartiere è oggi attraversato da profondi cambiamenti ed è al centro di ben più ampie trasformazioni urbane. Quali sono i nessi empirici tra fattori sociali e fattori economici nello sviluppo di questo luogo? I meccanismi che ne hanno prodotto la marginalità sono gli stessi che l’hanno mantenuta nel tempo? I principali mutamenti urbani vengono subiti dagli abitanti del quartiere o sono letti come opportunità? Le scuole presenti nel territorio riducono o amplificano le disuguaglianze sociali? Il basso valore degli immobili si configura ancora come meccanismo di segregazione o costituisce un elemento capace di attrarre nuove popolazioni produttive? Sono queste alcune delle domande a cui il libro prova a rispondere, attraverso i risultati di uno studio effettuato con molteplici tecniche di indagine, in un dialogo continuo e riflessivo con i protagonisti del quartiere.

Despite media coverage of isolated incidents of violent crime perpetuated by undocumented immigrants in cities with sanctuary policies, there is scant systematic research on the relationships between the adoption of sanctuary policies, unauthorized immigration, and crime. We compile city-level data from official sources and use fixed-effects negative binomial regression to examine whether the adoption of city-level sanctuary policies and the concentration of unauthorized Mexican immigrants are associated with homicide and robbery incidents in 107 U.S. cities, across three decades. We find evidence that the adoption of sanctuary policies is associated with a reduction in robberies but not homicide. In contrast, an increase in the relative size of a city’s unauthorized Mexican immigrant population corresponds with a reduction in homicide; however, only in sanctuary cities. Lastly, shifts in violence during our study period are consistently related to social structural characteristics of cities, which are findings consistent with social disorganization theory.

Low-income minority women are among the most disadvantaged in terms of social location,
which exposes them to various forms of violence that perpetuate their poverty. Previous
research has focused on individual explanations of actions that affect them. We seek to redirect
our understandings away from individual explanations to focus on the broader contexts and
inequalities that lie at the root of multiple and interconnected forms of violence in the lives of
women in vulnerable positions. This approach facilitates recognition of violent structures often
unrecognized or misrecognized as such. Our framework includes structural, interpersonal, and
symbolic forms of violence, which we apply to examine the lives of a subsample of minoritystatus
women gathered ethnographically in low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Los Angeles
and New York through the Three City Study of Moving to Opportunity. In this exercise, we
highlight the broader contexts that create conditions for individuals to harm one another.

Background: The main strategy for alleviating heart disease has been to target individuals and encourage them to change their health behaviors. Though important, emphasis on individuals has diverted focus and responsibility away from neighborhood characteristics, which also strongly influence people’s behaviors. Although a growing body of research has repeatedly demonstrated strong associations between neighborhood characteristics and cardiovascular health, it has typically focused on negative neighborhood characteristics. Only a few studies have examined the potential health enhancing effects of positive neighborhood characteristics, such as perceived neighborhood social cohesion.

Methods: Using multiple logistic regression models, we tested whether higher perceived neighborhood social cohesion was associated with lower incidence of myocardial infarction. Prospective data from the Health and Retirement Study—a nationally representative panel study of American adults over the age of 50—were used to analyze 5,276 participants with no history of heart disease. Respondents were tracked for four years and analyses adjusted for relevant sociodemographic, behavioral, biological, and psychosocial factors.

Results: In a model that adjusted for age, gender, race, marital status, education, and total wealth, each standard deviation increase in perceived neighborhood social cohesion was associated with a 22% reduced odds of myocardial infarction (OR = 0.78, 95% CI, 0.63-0.94. The association between perceived neighborhood social cohesion and myocardial infarction remained even after adjusting for behavioral, biological, and psychosocial covariates. Conclusions: Higher perceived neighborhood social cohesion may have a protective effect against myocardial infarction.

What is already known on this subject?
• Past research examining the associations between neighborhood-level factors and health, has largely focused on how negative neighborhood factors are associated with poorer health.
• However, a growing body of research shows that positive neighborhood-level factors, such as neighborhood social cohesion, is associated with an array of positive outcomes including better: mental health, health behaviors, and physical health.

What this study adds?
• To our knowledge, this is the first study to prospectively examine the association between perceived neighborhood social cohesion and myocardial infarction.
• Higher perceived neighborhood social cohesion was associated with lower myocardial infarction risk, even after adjusting for a wide range of covariates.
• If future research replicates these findings, more neighborhood-level public health approaches that target neighborhood social cohesion may be warranted.