Zachary P. Neal

The (In)compatibility of Diversity and Sense of Community

Community psychologists are interested in creating contexts that promote both respect for diversity and sense of community. However, recent theoretical and empirical work has uncovered a community-diversity dialectic wherein the contextual conditions that foster respect for diversity often run in opposition to those that foster sense of community. More specifically, within neighborhoods, residential integration provides opportunities for intergroup contact that are necessary to promote respect for diversity but may prevent the formation of dense interpersonal networks that are necessary to promote sense of community. Using agent-based modeling to simulate neighborhoods and neighborhood social network formation, we explore whether the community-diversity dialectic emerges from two principles of relationship formation: homophily and proximity. The model suggests that when people form relationships with similar and nearby others, the contexts that offer opportunities to develop a respect for diversity are different from the contexts that foster a sense of community. Based on these results, we conclude with a discussion of whether it is possible to create neighborhoods that simultaneously foster respect for diversity and sense of community.

Differentiating Centrality and Power in the World City Network

Centrality and power have become common foci for world city network research and frequently serve as tools for describing cities’ position or status in the system. However, these concepts are difficult to define and measure. Often they are treated as equivalent: more central cities have more power. This paper challenges this assumed equivalence by proposing conceptually distinct definitions and developing two new measures that allow them to be differentiated empirically. Applying the proposed measures in a hypothetical world city network and the Internet backbone network reveals that centrality and power are distinct and suggests that world cities should be viewed as arising from multidimensional network positions that define multiple types: quintessential world cities that are both central and powerful (such as New York and London), hub world cities that are central but not powerful (such as Washington and Brussels) and gateway world cities that are powerful but not central (such as Miami and Stockholm).

Refining the Air Traffic Approach to City Networks

Despite embracing the concept of networks to help explain the organisation of modern urban systems, measurement has presented an overriding challenge to researchers: how can linkages between cities be operationalised? Airline traffic data have been proposed as a promising solution, but these data introduce their own complications. In this paper, the Airline Origin and Destination Survey is used to refine this approach, distinguishing first between hub/spoke and origin/destination networks and, secondly, between networks of business-oriented and leisure-oriented travel among 115 US metropolitan areas in 2006. After illustrating the importance of these distinctions with employment data from the American Community Survey, the resulting and more narrowly focused business network is used to test a model of urban economic flows. Results suggest that the volume of business exchanges between US cities is a function of the cities’ own attributes and as well as relational factors including economic similarity.

Culinary Deserts, Gastronomic Oases: A Classification of US Cities

This paper explores the role of restaurants, as consumption spaces, in defining the consumptional identity of 243 American cities. Specifically, it is asked whether, and how, US cities can be classified on the basis of the local prevalence of specific types of restaurants-are some cities culinary deserts, while others are gastronomic oases? A two-stage cluster analysis reveals four distinct city types, which fall along two intersecting dimensions: a quantitative dimension of restaurant availability and a qualitative cultural dimension. These four city types are characterised and connected to the existing literature on consumption spaces, with particular attention to a strong parallel between these city types and the communities discussed by Richard Florida. Several directions for future research using the city classification as a conceptual framework are offered. Additionally, these analyses involve the development and application of a new method of measuring a citys number of consumption spaces, which is theoretically superior to traditional per capita measures and which is described in a methodological appendix.

Power as a Structural Phenomenon

In an effort to inform empowerment theory and research, this paper provides a structural conception of power. First, we examine the essential features present in three dominant conceptions of power in community psychology: social power, psychopolitical power, and relational power. Next, commonalities in the key features of power identified by these conceptions are explored and pared down to yield a more parsimonious conception of power that is grounded only in the structural pattern of relationships through which resources are exchanged. Drawing on social exchange theory, we offer a method for measuring this streamlined, structural conception of power that allows for its more precise examination. Finally, we discuss the implications of a structural conception and measurement of power for targeting and facilitating empowering processes and evaluating empowered outcomes.

The backbone of bipartite projections: Inferring relationships from co-authorship, co-sponsorship, co-attendance and other co-behaviors

Abstract The analysis and visualization of weighted networks pose many challenges, which have led to the development of techniques for extracting the networks backbone, a subgraph composed of only the most significant edges. Weighted edges are particularly common in bipartite projections (e.g. networks of co-authorship, co-attendance, co-sponsorship), which are often used as proxies for one-mode networks where direct measurement is impractical or impossible (e.g. networks of collaboration, friendship, alliance). However, extracting the backbone of bipartite projections requires special care. This paper reviews existing methods for extracting the backbone from bipartite projections, and proposes a new method that aims to overcome their limitations. The stochastic degree sequence model (SDSM) involves the construction of empirical edge weight distributions from random bipartite networks with stochastic marginals, and is demonstrated using data on bill sponsorship in the 108th U.S. Senate. The extracted backbones validity as a network reflecting political alliances and antagonisms is established through comparisons with data on political party affiliations and political ideologies, which offer an empirical ground-truth. The projection and backbone extraction methods discussed in this paper can be performed using the -onemode- command in Stata.

Transforming individual civic engagement into community collective efficacy: the role of bonding social capital.

Collective efficacy is defined as residents’ perceived collective capacity to take coordinated and interdependent action on issues that affect their lives. This study explored factors associated with neighborhood collective efficacy among residents. Utilizing a national sample of 4,120 urban households provided by Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connection Initiative, we investigated the mediating role of residents’ perceptions of bonding social capital (i.e. reciprocity, trust, and shared norms) in the association between civic engagement and collective efficacy. Multiple regression analyses revealed that civic engagement and bonding social capital were both directly related to collective efficacy. Additionally, bonding social capital partially mediated the relationship between civic engagement and collective efficacy. Specifically, residents who reported greater levels of civic engagement also reported higher levels of bonding social capital. In turn, residents who reported higher levels of bonding social capital also reported higher levels of neighborhood collective efficacy. We discuss implications of these findings for researchers and practitioners interested in associations of neighborhood collective efficacy.

From Central Places to Network Bases: A Transition in the U.S. Urban Hierarchy, 1900–2000

The notion of a hierarchy among cities has long been part of the theoretical tool kit of urban sociologists, geographers, and economists. Reviewing the evolution of the urban hierarchy concept, this paper empirically demonstrates a hypothesized transition in the U.S. urban hierarchy during the twentieth century, from size based to network based. Three urban types, following distinct trajectories during this shift, are explored: the primate city, the offline metropolis, and the wired town. Data on the economic structure, population size, and airline passenger traffic of 64 U.S. metropolitan areas from 1900 to 2000 are used to test the hypothesis of a hierarchical transition. Results suggest that a size–based hierarchy dominated in the early twentieth century but was replaced or augmented in the mid–1940s with a network–based hierarchy. The paper concludes with a discussion of the studys limitations and directions for future research. De los lugares centrales a las redes: La transición en la jerarquía urbana de los Estados Unidos desde 1900 hasta el 2000 (Zachary P. Neal) Resumen La noción de jerarquía urbana ha sido utilizada por mucho tiempo como parte del instrumental teórico de la sociología urbana, la geografía y la economía. Este artículo demuestra empíricamente la transición ocurrida en la jerarquía urbana de los Estados Unidos durante el siglo XX en que se pasó de una jerarquía basada en el tamaño de las ciudades a otra basada en las redes. Se abordan tres tipos urbanos que siguieron trayectorias distintas durante dicha transición: el modelo de primacía urbana, el modelo de la metrópolis autónoma y el modelo de la ciudad conectada. Para comprobar esta hipótesis de una transición en el tipo de jerarquía urbana, se hace uso de datos sobre estructura económica, población y tráfico aéreo de pasajeros de 64 áreas metropolitanas estadounidenses en el período 1900 – 2000. Los resultados indican que la jerarquía urbana basada en el tamaño fue el modelo dominante a principios del siglo XX pero fue reemplazada o aumentada a mediados de los años 40 con una jerarquía basada en redes. La conclusión del artículo incluye una discusión de las limitaciones del estudio y posibilidades para investigaciones futuras.

THE CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYMENT AND BUSINESS NETWORKS IN U.S. CITIES

ABSTRACT: Scholars from a range of disciplines have long recognized that a city’s economic fortunes are closely tied to its position in networks of interurban exchanges. However, it remains unclear whether cities occupy a central position in the network because they are sites of significant economic activity (i.e., a flow generation hypothesis), or whether they experience greater economic growth because they occupy a central position in the network (i.e., a structural advantage hypothesis). This article tests these complementary hypotheses by examining the total nonfarm employment in, and air travel patterns of business passengers among, 128 U.S. metropolitan areas from 1993 to 2008 using a series of lagged regression models. Results lend support to the structural advantage hypothesis, but not for the flow generation hypothesis: centrality drives employment, but not vice versa. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for infrastructure-focused approaches to economic development.

Creative Employment and Jet Set Cities: Disentangling Causal Effects

Whether people follow jobs or jobs follow people has been a central question in urban economics for decades. Because urban leaders increasingly focus on creative jobs as a growth strategy and because temporary city visitors play an increasingly significant role in economic processes, this study addresses a modified version of this question: do air passengers follow creative jobs (the flow generation hypothesis), or do creative jobs follow air passengers (the structural advantage hypothesis). The results indicate that both processes are in operation, but at different times. Air passengers follow creative jobs during periods of national economic decline, while creative jobs follow air passengers during periods of national economic growth. These findings suggest that city leaders must adopt an urban growth strategy that evolves with changing national economic conditions.