George Galster

Wrestling Sprawl to the Ground: Defining and measuring an elusive concept

Abstract The literature on urban sprawl confuses causes, consequences, and conditions. This article presents a conceptual definition of sprawl based on eight distinct dimensions of land use patterns: density, continuity, concentration, clustering, centrality, nuclearity mixed uses, and proximity. Sprawl is defined as a condition of land use that is represented by low values on one or more of these dimensions. Each dimension is operationally defined and tested in 13 urbanized areas. Results for six dimensions are reported for each area, and an initial comparison of the extent of sprawl in the 13 areas is provided. The test confirms the utility of the approach and suggests that a clearer conceptual and operational definition can facilitate research on the causes and consequences of sprawl.

The geography of metropolitan opportunity: A reconnaissance and conceptual framework

Abstract We present a conceptual framework for metropolitan opportunity and a model of individual decision making about issues affecting youths future socioeco‐nomic status. Decision making and its geographic context have objective and subjective aspects. Objective spatial variations occur in the metropolitan opportunity structure—social systems, markets, and institutions that aid upward mobility. Decisions are based on the decision‐makers values, aspirations, preferences, and subjective perceptions of possible outcomes, which are all shaped by the local social network (e.g., kin, neighbors, and friends). We also review the psychological literature on decision making. We hypothesize that the decision‐making method varies with the range of opportunities considered: Those with fewer options adopt a less considered method wherein mistakes and short‐term focus are more likely. Our review also finds empirical evidence that the local social network has an important effect on youths decisions regarding educat...

Residential Satisfaction Compositional and Contextual Correlates

A theory of residential satisfaction is developed and used in the specification of a path model wherein compositional characteristics of households and the context of the dwelling and neighborhood in which they live influence various dimensions of satisfaction. Relationships are estimated for 767 households sampled in Wooster, Ohio, in 1975, using two-stage least-squares techniques. Results show that certain households demonstrate less satisfaction in any residential context, and that certain dwelling and neighborhood contexts elicit dissatisfaction across the full sample. Only a few such contextual factors prove significant in most compositional subsamples, indicating that different household types differently evaluate and/or adapt to similar contexts.

The Mechanism(s) of Neighbourhood Effects: Theory, Evidence, and Policy Implications

Although there is now a large body of empirical research on neighbourhood effects, we know relatively little about the causal mechanisms responsible for relationships between neighbourhood attributes and individual outcomes. A list of 15 potential causal pathways which may lead to neighbourhood effects is given, grouped into four categories: social-interactive mechanisms, environmental mechanisms, geographical mechanisms, and institutional mechanisms. The ultimate goal of neighbourhood effects research is not only to identify which mechanisms are responsible for neighbourhood effects, but also to quantitatively ascertain their relative contributions to the outcome under investigation. A pharmacological metaphor of “dosage-response” is used to understand how the theoretical mechanisms could be causally linked to individual outcomes. This metaphor refers to questions regarding the composition and the administration of the neighbourhood dosage, and the neighbourhood dosage-response relationship. This chapter concludes that despite the ever growing literature on neighbourhood effects, there is far too little scholarship to make many claims about which causal links dominate for which outcomes for which people in which national contexts and any conclusions on the existence of such effects should be treated as provisional at best.

Neighbourhood effects on social opportunities : the European and American research and policy context

In contemporary European and American urban policy and politics and in academic research it is typically assumed that spatial concentrations of poor households and/or ethnic minority households will have negative effects upon the opportunities to improve the social conditions of those who are living in these concentrations. Since the level of concentration tends to be correlated with the level of spatial segregation the ‘debate on segregation’ is also linked to the social opportunity discussion. The central question is “Do poor neighbourhoods make their residents poorer?” (Friedrichs, 1998), i.e. does the neighbourhood structure exert an effect on the residents (behavioural, attitudinal or psychological) even when controlling for individual characteristics of the residents? The issue of neighbourhood effects on social opportunities of residents possesses rich geographical, sociological, economic and psychological dimensions, and as such has offered a locus for multi-disciplinary investigations on both sides of the Atlantic. Such diversity is amply demonstrated in this Special Issue of Housing Studies, with economists, geographers, planners and sociologists, hailing from Germany, the Netherlands, UK and USA, represented among the contributors. These diverse perspectives often intersect in two realms: spatial relationships and selective household mobility. The spatial focus of neighbourhood effect studies is clear, for example, in economic geographical studies about the spatial mismatch between demand and supply on the labour market (Kasarda et al., 1992). The thesis here is that economic restructuring has led to a situation in which the peripheral locations of suitable jobs for unskilled workers and inner-city residential locations of these potential workers have grown too far from each other to enable matching on a daily basis; this would aggravate the social conditions of those who live in inner-city areas. The spatial element is also evident in the research underpinnings of American housing policy aimed at changing the locations of low-income or minority households (Briggs, 1997; Del Conte & Kling, 2001; Katz et al., 2001; Ludwig et al., 2001; Rosenbaum, 1995; Rosenbaum et al., 2002). These American policies for changing the spatial distribution of the disadvantaged are related to European ideas about ‘mixed neighbourhood policies’ that nowadays receive considerable attention and critiques (Atkinson & Kintrea, 2001; Kearns,

Neighbourhood Social Mix as a Goal of Housing Policy: A Theoretical Analysis

ABSTRACT Many western European housing policies have tried to increase the residential mix of advantaged and disadvantaged groups. Unfortunately, policymakers have given little consideration to how these groups will interact as neighbours. There are numerous theoretically grounded mechanisms by which the social mix of a neighbourhood may influence socio-economic outcomes of its residents. These mechanisms differ on the basis of which group is generating the social externality in the neighbourhood, whether this externality is positive or negative, whether it affects all residents equally, and whether the marginal externality generated by adding one more member of a particular group is constant, proportional, or is characterized by a threshold effect. This paper demonstrates that a social mix housing policy can be justified only under a circumscribed set of the preceding parameters. Indeed, depending on the mechanism assumed, social efficiency implies that neighbourhoods should be either: equally mixed, have the disadvantaged group dispersed as widely as possible, or rigidly segregated; for other mechanisms, mix becomes irrelevant. Thus, for formulating and justifying a mixed housing policy on either efficiency or equity grounds it is crucial to understand exactly what sort of neighbourhood effect(s) is operating in neighbourhoods.

Residential segregation in American cities: A contrary review

Clark (1986) has reviewed evidence on the causes of racial residential segregation in American cities and has concluded that economic factors, job locations, preferences, and information bear the predominant explanatory weight; private acts of housing discrimination carry little weight. This article argues that Clarks conclusions are erroneous because they are based on a selective and incorrect interpretation of the evidence available to him and because more recent studies provide strong evidence to the contrary.

Identifying the Correlates of Dwelling Satisfaction: An Empirical Critique

This article represents a critique of empirical studies that have beenbased on the actual-aspirational gap approach to residential satisfaction. The reexamination of this theory suggests that empirical specifications should be disaggregated by household type and allow for nonlinear relationships between residential context and their associated levels of satisfaction. A multivariate regression analysis of dwelling satisfaction that employs such an appropriate specification is estimated for various strata of a 1980 sample of Minneapolis homeowners. Results provide strong support for the disaggregated, nonlinear modeling approach and, by implication, opens questions with much prior empirical work in the field.

Identifying neighborhood thresholds: An empirical exploration

Abstract In this article, we investigate the threshold‐like effects of four aspects of neighborhood environment: poverty rate, adult nonemployment rate, female headship rate for families with children, and secondary school dropout rate. We used a sample consisting of virtually all census tracts from U.S. metropolitan areas. The relationship between the value of numerous neighborhood indicators in 1980 and subsequent changes in each of the four dimensions of neighborhood quality of family life from 1980 to 1990 was evaluated statistically using a regression model with a spline specification to test for nonlinear, threshold‐like processes. Stressing the exploratory nature of the study, we find evidence of threshold‐like effects in an endodynamic relationship (poverty rate and subsequent changes in that rate), and in exodynamic relationships (occupational status and rental rates and subsequent changes in several neighborhood quality indicators). Implications for research and a spatially targeted neighborhood reinvestment policy are derived from the analysis.

The impact of neighbors who use section 8 certificates on property values

This article statistically examines the sale prices of single‐family homes surrounding Section 8 sites first occupied between 1991 and 1995 in Baltimore County. If only a few Section 8 sites were l...