Search results

Achieving the elimination of racial differences in test performance, as set forth in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), requires education policies that engage the reality that African American test performances are not only about race but also about gender and residential status. In an effort to inform education policymaking with research that explores race–gender and residential inequality, I assess the growth of reading gaps in school and non-school contexts using a national and city sample of children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal, Kindergarten Cohort 1998–1999. I found that inequality in test performances was greater in the city than elsewhere, and African American boys shoulder a disproportionate educational burden related to city residency and enrollment in city schools. Additionally, children in city neighborhoods – where drugs and burglary are big problems – experience large shortfalls in reading in school and non-school contexts. I conclude with a discussion of the study’s implications for future educational policy, practice, and research, especially NCLB, which mandates that public schools achieve parity among racial groups by the end of the 2013–2014 academic year.

Research on behavioral functioning among Mexican-origin children primarily uses an individual-centered approach that ignores the residential context. In addition, most studies have been unable to consider an important measure of inequality for this population, legal status; and mental health of children with undocumented parents is underexplored. We address these gaps by investigating the influence of parental legal status and neighborhood characteristics on Mexican-origin children’s behavioral functioning using a multilevel approach.

We use data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Study and 2000 decennial census. Our primary focus is variation in internalizing and externalizing behavior problems among Mexican-origin youth (N = 2,535) with mothers who are undocumented, documented or naturalized citizens, or US-born using multilevel models.

The multilevel results show the importance of considering parental legal status. Mexican children of unauthorized mothers are more likely to exhibit internalizing and externalizing problems than all other groups of Mexican children. Furthermore, neighborhood-concentrated disadvantage is significantly associated with internalizing behavior problems, and neighborhood-concentrated affluence is significantly associated with externalizing behavior problems. In short, the results demonstrate the importance of considering both parental legal status and neighborhood contexts for understanding behavior problems of Mexican-origin children.

Our findings suggest that Mexican children’s mental health outcomes – measured by internalizing and externalizing behavior problems – vary significantly by parental legal status and neighborhood contexts. This study provides important nuances for public policy for health care prevention and interventions.

Policing differs across neighborhoods, but little is known about how context conditions residents’ assessments about police legitimacy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether procedural justice and police effectiveness differently contribute to legitimacy judgments depending on the security risk inherent in the context.

The research applies a series of multi-level regression models using nearly 3,000 surveys of Trinidad and Tobago residents.

Police legitimacy and the conditions that promote legitimacy vary across neighborhoods. In “good” neighborhoods, individuals draw on police effectiveness and procedural justice to infer legitimacy, but in at-risk neighborhoods, residents’ views derive from effectiveness. Procedural justice does not play a significant role.

One implication for police is that the current emphasis on evidence-based policing strategies, especially in high crime neighborhoods, can provide a mechanism to improve the generally negative views about police legitimacy held by those residents. The findings do not imply, however, that police need not be concerned about procedural justice in at-risk neighborhoods. In fact, as police improve their crime prevention prowess, views about how procedurally just their methods are increase in importance.

Prior research addressing the antecedents of legitimacy has focused on individual demographic and attitudinal predictors. Only two prior studies have begun to investigate whether residents of different contexts may form their views based on different antecedents. This study outlines a theoretical basis for why different bases may be expected and then tests those expectations using rigorous statistical analyses.

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.

This study seeks to answer (1) how perceived neighborhood collective efficacy and disorder affect residents' cooperation with the police, both directly and indirectly through perceptions of the police and (2) how Arab American ethnicity moderates the linkages between perceived collective efficacy, disorder and cooperation.

Relying on survey interview data from a probability sample of 414 residents in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, MI and path model analysis, this study tests an explanatory model of public cooperation with the police that integrates both neighborhood and policing factors.

Perceived neighborhood disorder undermines residents' desires to cooperate, and this influence is chiefly direct. Meanwhile, although no significant total effect, perception of neighborhood collective efficacy does have a positive effect on cooperation through the mediator of positive assessment of police effectiveness. Further, collective efficacy has a direct, positive effect on cooperation among Arab Americans only. Finally, perceptions of police equal treatment and effectiveness, rather than procedural justice, are significant correlates of public cooperation.

This study contributes to the extremely limited literature on policing and Arab American communities. The findings can deepen the understanding on why and for which groups neighborhood context is related to cooperation with the police. Findings can also add to the knowledge base for designing policies and practices that help secure and promote public support and cooperation in both Arab and non-Arab communities.

The research intends to investigate the different typological and morphological characteristics of the neighbourhood spaces produced by different urban dynamics since the late nineteenth century in Turkey.

The main problem that drives the research is that a significant increase in the construction of gated communities has started to be seen in the last five years as a solution to safety issues in Turkey. However, these gated communities as safe-spaces have resulted in the danger of destroying neighbourhood life's physical and social dynamics by changing their spatial configuration. The study offers an analytical framework structured from defensible space theory and other safe-space theories in the literature. It has analysed the effect of physical characteristics of urban fabric on the production of safe-space in neighbourhoods through mappings and site observations. The case studies are conducted in three different morphological periods in Turkey, which are the Seyrancik neighbourhood in Bolu (the Ottoman Period), the Subayevleri neighbourhood in Ankara (the Republican Period) and the Karaman neighbourhood in Sakarya (the Liberalisation Period).

The analysis concludes that any type does not come to the fore in the production of defensible space in terms of its spatial features, but each has various strengths and weaknesses. As a result, this study emphasises the role of design in providing defensible neighbourhoods in the case of Turkey's cities and reveals the aspects that will guide the design of an urban and housing form in terms of the safety–environment relationship in Turkey.

The significance of the study is the comparative analytical approach to studying the housing development and demonstrates a method for analysing safety issues in the transformation process of neighbourhood structures in Turkey.

Several initiatives have taken part in the sustainability assessment tools, especially on the neighbourhood scale. These tools have been developed as neighbourhood sustainability assessment tools (NSATs) in global and local settings. Despite the widespread use of NSATs over the last two decades, research on NSATs in Global South cities is currently limited. This review article synthesizes literature themes and provides research priorities for NSATs.

This paper presents a systematic review of 48 research articles on NSATs in cities of the Global South, conducted and reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. A thematic synthesis of 18 articles was reviewed using content analysis to provide a thematic classification and research priorities that outline approaches and actions for implementation.

The results revealed five themes of NSATs for research tackling cities in the Global South, with one dominant theme related to case study-based frameworks and tools. The findings indicate a high level of affiliation contribution and research content focus within the Asian continent compared to the African continent and MENA region.

This study contributes to the bibliometric analysis of where the current body of research stands in NSATs. The added value highlights research priorities based on themes, spatial regions and tools.

The purpose of this paper is to present a state-of-the-art review on the topic of neighborhood/ecological influence on police use of force. In doing so, it provides an overview of the theoretical formulation and early ethnographic work on the topic as well as an in-depth critique of the issues that require further discussion.

Using several databases, a literature search was performed to collect the available empirical studies on the topic.

An analysis of the extant literature suggests that neighborhood/ecological influence on police use of force might not be as uniform as previously discussed, and it suffers from the ability to make sufficient comparisons. Tests vary based on the use of force measures, units of analysis, and the neighborhood-level variables examined.

This review should serve as a point of departure for scholars working in this area moving forward. It is hoped that the review provides thought-provoking commentary on the limitations of previous studies and the challenges facing this line of inquiry in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of customer share of wallet (SoW) based on research in customer characteristics and the retail service quality model. Specifically, this study adopts an asymmetrical modelling approach to provide insights into the necessary and sufficient conditions leading to increased customer SoW in the context of neighbourhood shops in Southern Africa.

This study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to analyse survey data collected from 523 current customers of the shops.

This study reveals that large household size and low income are necessary conditions for increased SoW. It also reveals five unique customer profiles, or casual recipes, associated with increased customer SoW. More generally, this study demonstrates that service quality constituents (personal interaction, reliability, policy and physical aspects of the shop) and customer characteristics, namely, relationship duration, household size, gender and income-level act in combination to lead to customer SoW.

This study illustrates how service quality constituents and customer characteristics compete and/or complement each other in relation to increased customer SoW. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to provide evidence on the necessary conditions for increased SoW, especially in the neighbourhood shop context of a developing economy. Value-wise, this paper provides a more nuanced perspective to understanding how unique customer profiles are associated with increased SoW.

New York City’s status as a majority “minority” city is reflected in many local neighborhoods that exemplify the racial and ethnic diversity of the urban landscape in the 21st century. In this quintessential immigrant city, the relative share of foreign-born has reached levels not seen since the historic immigrant wave at the turn of the last century (Foner, 2000; Scott, 2002). While “all the nations under heaven” are represented among old and new New Yorkers, researchers find that patterns of residential segregation persist and in fact, have worsened especially for African Americans (Beveridge, 2001; Logan, 2001). The racial balkanization of New York City, however, is tempered by the expansion of “polyethnic” or “global” neighborhoods. These racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods are found throughout New York City but their concentration in the borough of Queens is notable. Moreover, the magnitude of ethnic diversity in these neighborhoods has “no parallel in previous waves of immigration” (Foner, 2000, p. 58).