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The “Village” model has become an emerging, community-based, social initiative to help older adults age in place. This study aims to examine neighborhood social cohesion (NSC), or social connectedness and quality of life, from the perspective of village members.

A mixed-method evaluation was used to examine two Florida villages, a master-planned village (FV1) and a diverse neighborhood village (FV2). Both are full members of the National Village to Village Network.

The quantitative and qualitative data provided complementary and deeper understanding. Quantitative findings showed that FV1 members scored higher at NSC, and qualitative findings further confirmed that village program social activities were critical to building connections, especially for those who have lost loved ones and were single.

Findings should be interpreted considering the predominantly white racial makeup and affluence of village participants.

Findings point to the importance of NSC as older adults age and suggest that programs should prioritize activities that strengthen social connectiveness.

This is one of the first mixed-methods evaluations examining NSC and quality of life among village participants.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the complex constellation of underlying factors between community policing and fear of crime by embracing various exogenous variables identified through accumulated empirical research. Another important purpose of the current study is to examine the association between community policing and fear of crime in the Korean context.

The data originated from a survey administrated by the Korean Institution of Criminology in the area of Seoul, South Korea, in an attempt to examine citizens’ fear of crime, perceptions of public safety and environment. Using a stratified sampling method, a total of 654 respondents were selected. Structural equation modeling was used to examine direct and indirect relationships among exogenous and endogenous variables and to test the authors’ hypothesized structural model of the citizen's fear of crime.

The current study found that the four proposed models between community policing and fear of crime were not supported in the Korean context. Neither direct nor indirect relationships between community policing and fear of crime were statistically significant. On the other hand, community policing was found to be significantly and indirectly associated with perceived risk of crime; those who more perceived community policing activities felt a greater risk of crime. A logical explanation for these findings requires understanding of the characteristics of community policing practice and the unique crime environment in South Korea.

This study shows unique characteristics in the community policing‐fear of crime nexus in Korean society in relation to the implementation of community policing, the level of fear of crime and perception of community‐based crime control.

Mortgage defaults within a neighborhood may tip the scales whereby a vicious cycle of disinvestment and deterioration in the surrounding neighborhoods begins. This paper aims to examine the impact that mortgage default has on properties in the same ZIP code and neighboring ZIP codes.

Hypothesizing that neighborhoods' susceptibility to cascade failure can be measured by the rate of acceleration of mortgage failures within the neighborhood, the paper introduces a model to investigate whether or not this vicious cycle is such that mortgage failures multiply, and there is a tipping point at which the downward cycle accelerate.

The paper applies the model to data for the Los Angeles metropolitan area for the period 2006-2007 and finds evidence of a tipping point.

The paper is limited by the availability of data with respect to both time and space.

A failure tipping point will provide a signal that mortgage crisis is pending. Reacting to this signal could allow financial markets to avert such crises in the future.

Some neighborhoods may resist being labelled as one with significant mortgage failure activity. This resistance may cause a negative reaction to these results and implementation for the findings.

To-date, no evidence of a mortgage failure tipping point has been discovered in the literature.

Purpose – The goal of this chapter was to empirically describe the patterns and dimensions of community interaction of typically underserved families of children with autism and other developmental disabilities within a family quality of life (FQoL) context.

Methodology – We utilized the theoretical framework of FQoL to examine the community interactions of 149 families who voluntarily participated in this study. The Family Quality of Life Survey (FQoLS-2006) was used to collect data from the primary caregivers of the children with the disability, 92% of which were mothers. We conducted an in-depth examination of the six dimensions (importance, opportunities, initiative, attainment, stability, and satisfaction) of community interaction.

Findings – Most families viewed community interaction as very important to their FQoL and the majority (62%) were satisfied with their community interaction, although just over a third reported high attainment, and only 48% reported having adequate opportunities for community interaction. Families of children with autism reported lower attainment of community interaction when compared to families of children with other developmental disabilities (t=2.63, df=147, p=0.01). Some race-related and child-related differences were also observed in the initiative taken to pursue community interaction and discrimination experienced by families.

Limitations – Results must be interpreted with caution, as the participants in this study were all volunteers and the majority were mothers, and therefore may not be representative of all families of children with disabilities. Despite the limitations, findings from this study are a first step in understanding the multidimensional nature of community interaction of low-income, minority families.

Philosophical reflection is a reflection of a school’s organizational structure. This study employs formal and computational methods to examine closely the culture/structure duality in the Frankfurt School’s formation and fragmentation over several decades by examining the homology between its social and conceptual networks.

On the one side, I produce social structural data from archival research on the Frankfurt School’s set of social relations. On the other side, I use computer-assisted textual analysis to produce concept maps of key texts by the same thinkers. Analyzing these networks jointly, I then investigate the dyadic social and cultural processes that contributed to the school’s fragmentation and show that:

1. The Frankfurt School’s social structure and idea structure were positively correlated over three decades as the school moved from an era of social and intellectual coherence to an era of fragmentation.

2. While we normally imagine the duality of structure and culture as a positive correlation between social and cultural relations, it can also appear as a strong negative correlation. Leo Löwenthal’s expulsion from the school is such a case. As a peripheral member, Löwenthal’s attempt to engage more strongly with the school’s core ideas was interpreted as presumptuous and low quality by core members who strictly policed the social and intellectual structure of the school. As a result of his ambition, Löwenthal was expelled.

The Frankfurt School’s social structure and idea structure were positively correlated over three decades as the school moved from an era of social and intellectual coherence to an era of fragmentation.

While we normally imagine the duality of structure and culture as a positive correlation between social and cultural relations, it can also appear as a strong negative correlation. Leo Löwenthal’s expulsion from the school is such a case. As a peripheral member, Löwenthal’s attempt to engage more strongly with the school’s core ideas was interpreted as presumptuous and low quality by core members who strictly policed the social and intellectual structure of the school. As a result of his ambition, Löwenthal was expelled.

This paper develops a semantic network approach to analyzing the relation between structural and cultural ties while illustrating the complex ways in which cultural and structural facets of a philosophical school develop in a duality.

Enclave development is a common theme underlying much of the current thought regarding ethnic entrepreneurism, and particularly entrepreneurial behavior among recent immigrants. Historically, ethnic enclaves are described as having certain necessary characteristics (Portes, 1998; Portes & Bach, 1985; Waldinger et al., 1990), such as co-ethnic spatial concentration or agglomeration, a co-ethnic social and support network, a co-ethnic capital market, an intra-ethnic market trading structure (e.g. Dyer & Ross, 2000), and uniqueness of co-ethnic customer preferences and personalized services (e.g. Peterson & Roquebert, 1993). Current theory suggests that aspiring immigrant entrepreneurs and existing ethnic businesses alike can take advantage of the market and social cohesiveness offered by an established enclave, ultimately reducing the various transactions costs associated with doing intra-enclave business (Knack & Keefer, 1997). As Light (1998) argues, the key connection between social capital and ethnic entrepreneurship is the efficient use of ethnic resources to support the creation and survival of businesses in the community. While some characteristics of ethnic enclaves, such as co-ethnic agglomeration and social networks, have been extensively investigated by sociologists, regional economists, population ecologists, and entrepreneurship researchers, other enclave characteristics, such as the inter and intra-enclave market trading behaviors have been recognized, but less researched (Dyer & Ross, 2000; Galbraith et al., 2003).

Whereas social cohesion has been widely studied and researched by sociologist and psychologists, its application to public procurement is sparse. This study explores the connection between social cohesion, groupthink, ethical attitudes and ethical behavior of procurement officers. The study is based on a survey of 405 public procurement officers in central government. A cross-sectional survey design was used and a response rate of 58.5% attained. Self report items were used to study all the constructs. All the hypothesized relationships were found to be significant. Social cohesion, groupthink, and ethical attitudes were all significant predictors of ethical behavior, accounting for 56% of the variance. The strength of this prediction suggests the need for concerted policy intervention for dealing with unethical conduct and behavior of the procurement professionals.

In this chapter, I focus on stigmatization exercised and experienced by local residents, comparing two socially-diverse areas in very different contexts: the Cabrini Green-Near North area in Chicago and the La Loma-La Florida area in Santiago de Chile.

Data for this study were drawn from 1 year of qualitative research, using interviews with residents and institutional actors, field notes from observation sessions of several inter-group spaces, and “spatial inventories” in which I located the traces of the symbolic presence of each group.

Despite contextual differences of type of social differentiation, type of social mix, type of housing tenure for the poor, and public visibility, I argue that there are important common problems: first, symbolic differences are stressed by identity changes; second, distrust against “the other” is spatially crystallized in any type and scale of social housing; third, stigmatization changes in form and scale; and fourth, there are persisting prejudiced depictions and patterns of avoidance.

Socially-mixed neighborhoods, as areas where at least two different social groups live in proximity, offer an interesting context for observing territorial stigmatization. They are strange creatures of urban development, due to the powerful symbolism of desegregation in contexts of growing inequalities.

The chapter contributes to a cross-national perspective with a comparison of global-north and global-south cities. And it also springs from a study of socially-mixed areas, in which the debate on concentrated/deconcentrated poverty is central, and in which the problem of “clearing places” appears in both material (e.g., displacement) and symbolic (e.g., stigmatization) terms.

The purpose of this paper is to review, analyze and synthesize different pieces from literature to explore, define and describe the concept of social capital and its relationships with urban neighborhood design concepts. Additionally, to define the indicators and principles that can enhance social capital within urban design context. Moreover, to suggest theoretical urban neighborhood design concept that can adopt the changing discourse of social capital.

This research used the theoretical, analytical and descriptive approach-driven case study method. In all, 29 papers were analyzed to conclude the indicators that can measure social capital within the urban neighborhood design context and to conclude the required neighborhood design features and principles that influence social capital. Additionally, two new urban neighborhoods design concepts, cohousing and hybrid concepts that adopt new forms of social interaction, were studied, analyzed and then synthesized to suggest new neighborhood design concept, which is a heterotopia concept.

Heterotopia neighborhood concept aims to create real, different and heterogeneous functional spaces with different layers of meanings for people from different cultures in one place. Different visible enclosures are merged into spaces of otherness while the diversity gives a sense of entering another alternative place. The heterotopias neighborhood design principles aim to create a wide variety of forms, shapes and elements [different new spaces for different ritual activities to reflect the otherness self-reflection (homogeneous and scattered spaces)] and create linkage, hierarchy, contrast and mingling between spaces and places; well-defined functional effective spaces; different fantasy and leisure spaces; high standard quality of life and otherness space; flux in social realm and fluidity of spaces; mixed use and joint experience; and innovated technologies spaces to offer strange new temporalities.

This research recommended that different community stakeholders should participate in planning process, neighborhood urban design and decision-making process about public spaces to strengthen the community ties and achieve a heterotopia concept. Architect, urban designers and planners should adopt bottom-up design approach when designing neighborhood. Additionally, to avoid poor social capital research studies, the new researchers, practitioners and journal reviewers approaching social capital for the first time must read widely to gain an understanding of the concept from different perspectives and narrow their scope to their particular area of interest.

This research highlights the needs for empirical studies to examine the relationships/interrelationships between all neighborhood design principles and social capital. This might increase the knowledge on how we can design and increase the quality of neighborhood to foster social capital, which might offer interesting insights into how neighborhood urban design principles are combined to foster social capital within neighborhood context.

Neighborhood-based research encourages new suggesting concepts in designing every single place in the residential neighborhood in a way that can adapt the new forms of social interaction. This research scanned the current concepts of neighborhood design that concerned successfully with the changing forms of social relationships to conclude some design features and principles for neighborhood design to ensure and promote social public health and well-being. This research offers a unique perspective for better understanding the relationships between the neighborhood urban design as a spatial dimension and social capital. This research aims to enrich the socio-spatial knowledge and build a resilient urban community by suggesting theoretical urban neighborhood design concept, which is the heterotopia concept, and providing the urban designers and architects with a valuable thinking tool to design spaces.

A neighborhood‐based notion of the distribution of policing services is a hallmark of community policing philosophy. The purpose of this research is to focus on two policy issues: are there significant differences in important policing issues among the different communities, and what factors within the Sheriff's control might account for these differences?

In 2002, the Ada County Sheriff's Office (ACSO), servicing the area around Boise, Idaho, carried out a survey of citizens stratified across four areas: two contract communities, one non‐contract community, and the unincorporated remainder of the county.

The survey found significant variation in perceptions of crime and disorder, in perceptions of safety, in social cohesion, and in attitudes toward deputies and to the sheriffs office. Findings suggested the importance of local policy through the tailoring of services to local needs. However, some community factors appeared to provide limits on the extent to which the police could respond to dissatisfaction with their services, regardless of adaptive strategy.

Only limited empirical research has studied neighborhood variation in citizens' perceptions of differences pertinent to policing services, and virtually no such research has been carried out outside urban areas. This research fills this gap.