Nick Bailey

Neighbourhood Effects Research: New Perspectives

Over the last 25 years a vast body of literature has been published investigating neighbourhood effects: the idea that neighbourhood characteristics can have a significant effect on residents’ life chances over and above the effect of their individual characteristics. There is little doubt that neighbourhood effects exist, but we know little about the causal mechanisms which produce them, their relative importance compared to individual characteristics, and under which circumstances and in which places these effects are important. This chapter discusses some of the main theoretical and empirical challenges in neighbourhood effects research, related to the identification of true causal effects. An over emphasis on statistical techniques to overcome the problems related to modelling selection bias had distracted us from a much more important issue: the theoretical and empirical identification of potential causal pathways behind neighbourhood effects. This chapter offers seven ways forward for neighbourhood effects research: development of clear hypotheses; empirically testing explicit hypotheses; investigating neighbourhood selection; integrate models of neighbourhood selection and models of neighbourhood effects; investigate various spatial scales; development of better longitudinal data; and the use of mixed methods research.

Central Scotland as a Polycentric Urban Region: Useful Planning Concept or Chimera?

Interest in the concept of the polycentric urban region (PUR) has been growing among planners and policy-makers in north-west Europe. PURs are believed to offer a means of promoting regional economic competitiveness while safeguarding environmental objectives. This paper interrogates the concept and examines its relevance to the central Scotland region. Central Scotland has a polycentric physical form, but the evidence that it is a single functional region in economic terms is much more mixed. The dominant pattern of interactions suggests two separate city-regions, although links between adjoining areas seem to be growing. Despite considerable rivalry between public organisations across the region, there appears to be increasing support for the development of some kind of strategic spatial framework to inform key investment decisions and to promote closer collaboration. This would not necessarily be based on the PUR concept, since it is too broadly specified at present to guide the kinds of decision that need to be made. Further work is needed to elaborate and refine the concept.

Place Attachment in Deprived Neighbourhoods: The Impacts of Population Turnover and Social Mix

This paper examines the determinants of individual place attachment, focusing in particular on differences between deprived and other neighbourhoods, and on the impacts of population turnover and social mix. It uses a multi-level modelling approach to take account of both individual- and neighbourhood-level determinants. Data are drawn from a large sample government survey, the Citizenship Survey 2005, to which a variety of neighbourhood-level data have been attached. The paper argues that attachment is significantly lower in more deprived neighbourhoods primarily because these areas have weaker social cohesion but that, in other respects, the drivers of attachment are the same. Turnover has modest direct impacts on attachment through its effect on social cohesion. Social mix has very limited impacts on attachment overall but its effects also vary between social groups. In general, higher status or more dominant groups appear less tolerant of social mix.

Understanding Neighbourhood Dynamics: New Insights for Neighbourhood Effects Research

Non-random sorting of residents into neighbourhoods provides neighbourhood effects researchers with a major challenge: The neighbourhoods which people ‘choose’ reflect their incomes, and as a result neighbourhood characteristics are endogenous, causing bias in models of neighbourhood effects. So understanding neighbourhood choice and neighbourhood dynamics is at the heart of a better understanding of neighbourhood effects, but is also crucial for literatures on residential mobility, segregation, and neighbourhood change. This chapter offers a state-of-the-art overview of literature on neighbourhood dynamics. First, a range of theories regarding neighbourhood dynamics are discussed. Second, the chapter offers an extensive summary of the 11 other chapters in this book, with empirical contributions from the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, The Netherlands, and the USA. Through this overview, this chapter offers insight into the latest developments in research on neighbourhood dynamics.

The theory of polynuclear urban regions and its application to central Scotland

The idea of strategic planning for networks of cities and towns, encapsulated in the polynuclear urban region concept, has attracted growing interest in many European regions. Key themes include cooperation between neighbouring cities and coordination between functional policies. This article explores the theoretical benefits, including increased economies of scale and improvements in the strength and quality of internal interactions. It also applies these arguments to Central Scotland. As the largest concentration of economic activity in Scotland, with a high level of organizational fragmentation but growing cross boundary issues and coincident growth pressures and deficiencies, there are potential gains from a common strategic perspective. These include improved communications for inter‐firm collaboration and trade, more efficient labour and housing market interactions, and an institutional framework for planning and marketing important regional assets. Closer cooperation within a regional perspective could help the Central Belt to function better as an economic unit and facilitate its ongoing development.

Coping with the Cuts? The Management of the Worst Financial Settlement in Living Memory

Abstract The scale of the cuts to local government finance, coupled with increasing demand for services, has led to unprecedented ‘budget gaps’ in council budgets. Arguably, two competing narratives of the trajectory of local government have emerged in which contrasting futures are imagined for the sector – a positive story of adaptation and survival and more negative one of residualisation and marginalisation. Drawing on case study evidence from three English local authorities, the paper distinguishes and provides examples of three strategic approaches to managing austerity – efficiency, retrenchment and investment. It demonstrates how and why the balance of these strategies has shifted between the early and later phases of austerity and considers the extent to which the evidence of the case studies provide support for either the survival or marginalisation narrative. The paper concludes by arguing that a third narrative – responsibilisation – captures more fully the trajectory of local government in England.

How Spatial Segregation Changes over Time: Sorting Out the Sorting Processes

Although there is strong evidence that segregation on socioeconomic lines has risen in many countries over the last few decades, comparatively little is known about the processes by which this happens. While it is often assumed that selective migration is the dominant process, this has rarely been demonstrated. This paper proposes a more comprehensive framework to analyse processes driving changes in segregation—a ‘neighbourhood accounts’ framework. The framework is tested using data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study for 1991–2001, focusing on the working-age population. Contrary to what many have assumed, selective migration is shown to have only a very weak impact on changes in spatial segregation, and is certainly not the dominant factor—at least in this particular context. The effects of ageing or cohort replacement and of uneven rates of status change or social mobility appear much more important. This raises important issues for policies to tackle segregation.

Living apart, losing sympathy? How neighbourhood context affects attitudes to redistribution and to welfare recipients

Rising levels of income inequality have been directly linked to rising levels of spatial segregation. In this paper we explore whether rising segregation may in turn erode support for the redistributive policies of the welfare state, further increasing levels of inequality—a form of positive feedback. The role of the neighbourhood has been neglected in attitudes research but, building on both political geography and ‘neighbourhood effects’ literatures, we theorise that neighbourhood context may shape attitudes through the transmission of attitudes directly and through the accumulation of relevant knowledge. We test this through multilevel modelling of data from England on individual attitudes to redistribution in general and to welfare benefit recipients in particular. We show that the individual factors shaping these attitudes are quite different and that the influence of neighbourhood context also varies as a result. The findings support the idea that neighbourhood context shapes attitudes, with the knowledge accumulation mechanism likely to be the more important. Rising spatial segregation would appear to erode support for redistribution but to increase support for welfare recipients—at least in a context where the dominant media discourse presents such a stigmatising image of those on welfare benefits. Keywords: attitudes, inequality, redistribution, neighbourhood effects, spatial segregation

Neighbourhood Effects or Neighbourhood Based Problems? A Policy Context

The introduction of this edited volume explores the links between neighbourhood effects research, perceived neighbourhood problems and the policy responses that local and national governments have pursued to ameliorate the impacts on individuals. We consider why the neighbourhood is frequently used as a site for local interventions and discuss the motivations that multiple national governments have put forward in making the case for area based policies. Previous research has been far from conclusive about how and where neighbourhood matter for individual outcomes: sometimes the neighbourhood context can be a key influence, in other cases it can appear to be relatively insignificant compared with individual characteristics. As a result, a persistent key question that regularly surfaces in discussions about neighbourhood effects and neighbourhood-based policies is whether or not place-based policies remain relevant if there is little conclusive evidence that neighbourhood effects exist. In response to this question, we suggest that even when casual neighbourhood effect are small or insignificant, there is still be a case to be made for investments in neighbourhoods to provide social facilities for communities and as an effective way to target spatially concentrated communities. However, drawing on a recent comprehensive review of place- and people-based policies in the UK there is an apparent disconnection between person- and place-based policies.

The Chinese community in Scotland

The Chinese are a large ethnic minority community but have been little researched. This paper uses the material on ethnic origin from the 1991 Census together with research‐based information, to paint a picture of the Chinese community in Scotland. The data are analysed in terms of household structure, housing and employment and the patterns of settlement in the major cities are explored.