THE EFFECTS OF INFORMAL NEIGHBORHOOD BONDING SOCIAL CAPITAL AND NEIGHBORHOOD CONTEXT ON HOMEOWNERSHIP FOR FAMILIES LIVING IN POVERTY

ABSTRACT: The concept of social capital has been embedded ubiquitously into the strategies and goals of community‐based development programs for families living in low‐income neighborhoods; yet, scholars continue to debate social capital's empirical support. The present study defines a specific type of social capital—informal neighborhood bonding social capital—and tests its relationship with homeownership while controlling for effects of neighborhood context. Findings reveal informal neighborhood bonding social capital is associated with homeownership above and beyond the effects of neighborhood context. Findings are discussed in relation to future research and the implications for community‐based practitioners working with families in low‐income neighborhoods.     

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS: HOMEOWNERSHIP AND SOCIAL CAPITAL AMONG LOW‐ TO MODERATE‐INCOME FAMILIES

ABSTRACT: This research explores whether homeownership leads to increased individual social capital among low‐ to moderate‐income families. Social capital refers to social resources a person can access through contacts with others in his or her social networks. We theorize that homeownership can motivate interactions with others in one's neighborhood and therefore build social capital. Using a sample of low‐ and moderate‐income homeowners and a matched sample of renters, we collect data on overall social resources and neighborhood‐specific social resources. We find that homeowners have more total social capital resources and more neighborhood social capital resources than renters. Neighborhood group involvement has an indirect effect on social capital, but explains only a small amount of the influence of homeownership. These findings hold when controlling for household‐level and neighborhood‐level sociodemographic variables, as well as when using statistical models that account for endogeneity. Based on this evidence, we conclude that homeownership gives people access to social capital via increased social ties to others. We discuss the implications of this finding for housing policy and suggest new directions for research on social capital.     

RENEWING PEOPLE AND PLACES: INSTITUTIONAL INVESTMENT POLICIES THAT ENHANCE SOCIAL CAPITAL AND IMPROVE THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT OF DISTRESSED COMMUNITIES

ABSTRACT: The challenges confronting distressed communities in the United States are complex and multifaceted. Communities large and small have been significantly affected by a myriad of social, environmental, and economic forces, including a continuing decline in manufacturing employment, uncontrolled sprawl, and the transition to a global economy. The traditional choice between a “place‐based” theory of redevelopment strategy versus a “people‐focused” theory no longer seems feasible or appropriate. This article outlines sustainable development as an alternative strategy that combines a place‐based development strategy, a human development focus, and an environmentally mindful approach. It posits that there exists a direct positive relationship between the creation of social capital, the redevelopment of the built environment utilizing sustainable development practices, and community‐based organizations in distressed communities. Furthermore, the authors suggest that through community investment—a socially responsible investment strategy—institutions of higher education can facilitate the rebuilding of communities by providing financial capital while gaining a moderate yet secure financial return as well as a substantial social return.     

RELOCATING THE POOR: SOCIAL CAPITAL AND NEIGHBORHOOD RESOURCES

ABSTRACT:  This article examines the social capital available to low-income households which were relocated to different types of neighborhoods with the HOPE VI program, an initiative aimed at redeveloping U.S. public housing developments into mixed-income communities. Along with improving the living environment, HOPE VI is thought to improve residents' access to social capital by changing the economic mix of their neighborhoods. This article contributes evidence from multivariate analyses of survey data of Boston HOPE VI residents in their post-HOPE VI neighborhoods. Findings indicate that rather than neighborhood socioeconomic mix, neighborhood resources, such as libraries, recreation facilities, parks, grocery stores, and social services, followed by place attachment and feelings of safety, were the strongest predictors of social capital. A discussion of why neighborhood resources may be so important for social capital is presented, and implications for policies aimed at improving poverty neighborhoods and low-income people's access to social capital are considered .     

Information sharing and human capital efficiency in poor neighborhoods: some graph theoretic applications

This paper develops an analysis of human capital development that explores the relationships between information sharing and human capital efficiency in poor neighborhoods. In deriving the results, a relative connectivity (gamma) index, borrowed from the geography literature, is integrated into a model of neighborhood human capital growth. It is argued in this paper that increases in the sharing efficiency of economic information among individuals in a given neighborhood may have positive impacts on neighborhood human capital efficiency rates. These positive impacts on neighborhood human capital efficiency may likewise help to reduce the poverty rate in that neighborhood. The results established in this paper indicate that not only is the sharing of economic information in urban neighborhoods important for neighborhood human capital development but also that neighborhood income sharing, the sharing of neighborhood social capital, and the diversity of neighborhood social capital may all have a beneficial influence on both the human capital efficiency rate and the rates of neighborhood poverty.     

INVESTORS: THE MISSING PIECE IN THE FORECLOSURE RACIAL GAP DEBATE

ABSTRACT: Foreclosures have become one of the most important problems facing cities and the U.S. economy. However, not all communities are affected equally. Our goal is to better understand factors that affect variation in neighborhood foreclosures in a typical, mid‐sized U.S. city—Louisville, Kentucky. While previous findings indicate that a key explanatory variable leading to rising neighborhood foreclosures is the proportion of racial minorities, our analysis finds that in a fully specified model, race does not predict differences between black and white homeowners. On the other hand, an analysis of investors predicts high foreclosure rates in African‐American neighborhoods. The effect of percent nonwhite is caused by several key intervening variables, including the presence of investor foreclosures, the absence of neighborhood walkability, and the prevalence of high‐cost loans. In the past, walkability and investor behavior have largely been ignored by social scientists studying neighborhood variation in foreclosures and the role of race in rising foreclosures. In this article, we examine how speculation by investors in majority African‐American neighborhoods along with degree of walkability and the concentration of high‐priced loans have contributed to recent increases in foreclosures and variation across neighborhoods. Together, the findings demonstrate that these three factors help to better explain the contemporary causes of greater foreclosures in African‐American neighborhoods.     

Housing,social capital and community development in Seoul

The nature of Korea’s tenure system and its future development has become an increasingly important aspect of housing policy and community development. A major question being posed is what are the implications of housing tenure differences in social capital for housing (estate) development? Are there differences in levels of social capital between ‘homeowners and tenants’ as well as ‘public rental tenants and private rental tenants’? The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast elements of social capital across different housing tenures in the Seoul Metropolitan Region. Using the results of 260 questionnaires and we assess three commonly recognized elements of social capital: social trust, norms and networks. Respondents from across different tenure types reported differences in feelings of acceptance in the neighborhood, and involvement in formal and informal networks. This study found that some of the elements of social capital differed significantly between housing tenures and that housing tenure was also relevant to negative perceptions of socio-economic diversity in the area. This article concludes housing tenure is relevant to the development of neighborhood-based social capital and that this needs to be considered by those involved in implementing housing (estate) development and sustainable communities in Seoul.     

NEIGHBORHOOD ATTACHMENT,SOCIAL CAPITAL BUILDING,AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION: A CASE STUDY OF LOW‐ AND MODERATE‐INCOME RESIDENTS OF WATERLOO,IOWA

ABSTRACT: This case study examines the importance of neighborhood identity and engagement in place‐based social networks within the neighborhood in fostering and stimulating neighborhood‐based participation in the urban political process. Scholars concerned with civic engagement have argued that there is a strong link between the informal ties known as “social capital” and citizen engagement in the larger community. If this linkage can be shown to exist in the neighborhood setting, then it can provide guidance to both scholars and practitioners in utilizing informal, place‐based networks to empower disadvantaged neighborhoods. Evidence presented in this essay, based on interviews with a representative sample of neighborhood residents in the small industrial city of Waterloo, Iowa, suggests that strong informal networks of social capital exist within neighborhoods, but that persons who are more strongly engaged in these networks are not necessarily more involved in the efforts of formal neighborhood associations. However, individuals who are involved in these formal associations are much more likely to be connected to the local and national political systems through voting and other forms of participation.     

Community Development Financial Institutions: Current Issues and Future Prospects

Abstract: Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) help to address the financial needs of under‐served, predominantly low‐income communities. CDFIs include community development banks, credit unions, business and microenterprise loan funds, and venture capital funds. Although CDFIs are a rapidly growing and an increasingly important area of community economic development, they have not received proportionate attention from academic researchers. This article begins to address the gap. It outlines the history of the CDFI industry and details how CDFIs are responding to three specific development needs: basic financial services; affordable credit for home purchase, rehabilitation, and maintenance; and loan and equity capital for business development. The article then considers the strengths and limitations of CDFIs, concentrating especially on the relationship between CDFIs and conventional financial institutions. It concludes by examining the impact that these alternative financial institutions realistically can hope to achieve.     

MIGRANT CIVIL SOCIETY: NEW VOICES IN THE STRUGGLE OVER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT: Port‐of‐entry immigrant neighborhoods have long been a feature of the American city. Dense cross‐border networks are reshaping port‐of‐entry immigrant neighborhoods and creating “transnational communities” where forces of global economic restructuring and practices of everyday life combine into a distinctive form of urbanization. Yet immigration has also created tensions and conflicts. Lack of affordable housing, inadequate access to quality schools, substandard employment, and unmet basic needs are among the problems facing large segments of society. Their resolution has been rendered more problematic by questions concerning the immigration status of many residents. The lack of recourse for undocumented immigrants to the state has meant that the task of resolving these social problems has been displaced onto civil society. This article considers the role of nonprofit, community organizations and social movement organizations—part of an emergent migrant civil society—in responding to a variety of social and economic concerns affecting residents of Albany Park. The community area of Albany Park on Chicago's north side has for decades served as a first destination for immigrants. In 2000 the foreign‐born population in Albany Park climbed to 52%, making it one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Chicago. Through an examination of neighborhood social struggles we consider the ways in which transnational flows of people, commerce, culture, and social practices come to ground in neighborhoods like Albany Park. Then we present two case studies of social activism by segments of migrant civil society. The first examines the antigentrification movement launched by the Balanced Development Coalition, while the second considers workers' rights activism in support of day laborers. Finally, we reflect on the implications of the Albany Park cases for the study of migrant civil society more broadly.     

THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY SYSTEM: A Case Study of Politics and Institutions in Cleveland, 1967–1997

ABSTRACT: This article examines the emergence of community development corporations (CDCs) from a peripheral component of neighborhood-based community development in the late 1960s to a leading role in community development in the 1990s. An emphasis is placed on the historical development of CDCs as they have progressed from neighborhood social movements, to neighborhood-based organizations, to the current emergence of a citywide community development industry system bringing CDCs together with traditional urban institutions such as local government, corporate philanthropy, and the religious establishment. The industry system framework provides an analytical context for a case study of Cleveland's CDCs from the late 1960s through the late 1990s.     

NEIGHBORHOOD‐BASED NETWORKS,SOCIAL RESOURCES,AND LABOR MARKET PARTICIPATION IN TWO DUTCH NEIGHBORHOODS

ABSTRACT: Numerous neighborhood effect studies have reported on the negative consequences of living in disadvantaged neighborhoods for various employment outcomes, such as the duration of welfare dependence and level of income. One hypothesis for explaining this relationship is the social isolation hypothesis, which assumes that low‐income residents in disadvantaged neighborhoods are worse off than their counterparts in mixed neighborhoods because they rely on other disadvantaged neighbors to find work. These ideas are addressed by comparing survey data on social resources in the social networks of residents in a low‐income neighborhood and a socioeconomically mixed neighborhood in the Dutch city of The Hague. Findings show that living in a low‐income neighborhood influences labor market participation indirectly by limiting residents' access to job information. However, differences in access to job information cannot be explained by the high degree of neighborhood orientation in the social networks of residents in the low‐income neighborhood.     

ADAPTATION OR EXTINCTION? COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT LOAN FUNDS AT A CROSSROADS

ABSTRACT: This article examines community development loan funds (CDLFs), a type of community development financial institution that provides financing and technical assistance for businesses; for‐profit and nonprofit real estate and housing developers; nonprofit organizations looking for facility or operating capital; and low‐income individuals looking for financing to purchase or rehabilitate their homes. Like many nonprofits and social enterprises, CDLFs have experienced a worsening political and economic environment since 2000, leaving many of them struggling to stay alive as the subsidized capital necessary to fund their operations largely has evaporated. The article reviews CDLF origins, structures, and current activities; discusses the field's historic sources of subsidized capital and why they have shrunk; reviews potential new sources of capital and the organizational ways that CDLFs are responding to their changed environment; and makes recommendations for CDLFs, funders, and policy makers. It is based on organizational‐level data from annual surveys of CDLFs conducted by the CDFI Data Project and the Opportunity Finance Network; on two dozen interviews with CDLF, foundation and bank officers and staff and policy makers involved with the field; on documents from individual CDLF institutions; and on contemporary press accounts.     

Does religious affiliation affect migration?

We test whether social networks at the origin, measured by religious affiliation, affect out‐migration. The basic idea is that a social capital loss is attached to the decision to out‐migrate, and said loss increases migration costs because benefits received from the local network at the origin disappear. To test this hypothesis, we estimated conditional and mixed logit models for the decision to out‐migrate. The results supported the hypothesis: members from religious organizations with strong intra‐community and weak intercommunity ties tended to out‐migrate less than others. This result was highly significant and robust to model specification and estimation methods.     

Valuing Social Resources or Capitalizing on Them? Limits to Pro-poor Urban Governance in Nine Cities of the South

Drawing on research in nine cities of Africa, Asia and Latin America, evidence of local-level networks and associational life is analysed, to assess where benefits accrue when they are harnessed in the interests of city governance. Adopting a critical approach to the concept of social capital, it is concluded that the social resources of the urban poor (family, kinship, social networks and community-level organization) are as much an asset for urban development institutions and processes as they are for the poor themselves. Although urban government and other development agencies may draw upon the social resources of poor communities and benefit from or respond to public action, this does not mean that they depend on them. Although public action is important to ensure local democracy, social capital, it is concluded, does not guarantee pro-poor governance.     

A PLACE FOR AREA‐BASED POLICY? THE SURVIVAL AND GROWTH OF LOCAL FIRMS IN DUTCH RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS

ABSTRACT: Although their market scope often exceeds the neighborhood level, for most entrepreneurs of small‐scale firms the neighborhood is the relevant arena for both their professional activities and their personal affairs. Dutch local economic policy aims to stimulate new firm formation and firm survival in (disadvantaged) neighborhoods by conditioning economic, social, and physical aspects of the neighborhood such as economic zoning and clustering, livability, and the quality of the built‐up area. Although substantial differences in firm success exist across neighborhoods, it is not clear whether area‐level factors contribute to these differences, suggesting that area‐level policies are useful, or whether differences are due to either urban effects or to microlevel entrepreneurial and firm composition effects. This article distinguishes neighborhood effects from composition effects on local firm survival and firm growth, thereby also taking into account spatial dependence across neighborhoods. Our results suggest that aspects of the local livability of neighborhoods and of economic agglomeration are significantly related to individual firm survival and firm growth. The models provide proof for spillover effects of livability problems and market potential between adjacent neighborhoods. Neighborhoods and cities are therefore potentially places for area‐based policies, aiming at the survival and growth of local firms.     

居民归属感、邻里交往和社区参与的机制分析*——以广州市城中村改造为例

当前各地城市出现大量城中村改造项目,城中村居民的社会融合问题备受关注。基于2010-2013年广州典型城中村和复建房社区的问卷数据,主要采用计量研究方法,探讨改造对居民归属感、邻里交往和社区参与的作用机制。实证表明,改造对居民社区情感有重要影响,正全面重塑其影响机制:复建房社区的归属感远高于城中村社区,其归属感主要受"居住满意度"影响;邻里熟悉度主要受"与未成年子女同住"、"教育程度"和"居住年限"等因素影响;邻里互助主要受"人均家庭收入"影响;而社区参与度则主要受"户籍"影响。此外,复建房社区中的社区归属感、邻里熟悉和邻里互助三者与社区参与的相互作用力有所减弱。本文指出,城中村改造的后续工作应把重点置于复建房社区内各群体的社区融合之上,着力培育社区情感。     

ESCAPING THE LOCAL TRAP? THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY‐REPRESENTING ORGANIZATIONS IN URBAN GOVERNANCE

ABSTRACT: This article explores the potential dangers of parochialism in using community‐based associations to represent community interests and the role of these organizations in advising on citywide policies in urban governance. Based on recent theoretical debates on citizen participation at the local level, we analyze whether community‐based participation potentially leads to parochial pursuit of community interests at the expense of broader regional goals by investigating the effect of organizational and community characteristics. Using Los Angeles neighborhood councils as an empirical case, this exploratory analysis finds that the nature of neighborhood council members’ civic activities is related to the degree to which they may potentially pursue parochial interests. A similar relationship is found between the geographic location of communities and such pursuits. Lastly, neighborhood council members’ civic activities and other community characteristics also influence their activities concerning advice on citywide policies. These findings suggest ways that neighborhood councils might play a greater role in advising on citywide policies in urban governance.     

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS: DOES THE NETWORK OF CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS INFLUENCE PARTICIPATION IN NEIGHBORHOOD PROJECTS?

ABSTRACT: This article aims to explain variations in the participation of civic organizations in neighborhood projects. In particular, we inquire into the impact of the social networks of more than 400 local civic organizations on their participation in neighborhood projects in two Dutch cities. Two strands of literature constitute the basis for our arguments. First, there is much research on the determinants of individual participation showing that tenure, social‐economic status, and being a member of the majority matter considerably. Second, network studies demonstrate that the structure and content of one's relationships substantially influences successive actions. Our expectations are based on both bodies of knowledge. We survey the civic organizations in eight neighborhoods and analyze the impact of their social networks using multinomial logistic regression models. The results show that the actual number of relations in the network and the density of the networks are positively associated with participation in neighborhood projects. Furthermore, we show that organizations with high proportions of ethnic minorities provide less support, despite their networks. Finally, organizations with many professionals working for them participate more if their networks are taken into consideration.     

PROGRESSIVE AND SUSTAINED SCHOOL REFORMS: FRAMING AND COALITION BUILDING IN SWISS CITIES

ABSTRACT: Urban politics in the early 21st century is structured by conflicts over social cohesion and economic competitiveness. Education policy takes center stage in this struggle as schools are institutions of both social and economic reproduction. I draw on arguments of urban regime and policy frame analysis to examine the politics of urban school reform in two Swiss cities. Empirically, I analyze neighborhood‐embedded bottom‐up school reforms committed to social cohesion. The paths these reforms eventually take were shaped by different coalitions geared around specific school policy frames. Frames indeed play a crucial role in building a coalition toward progressive school reforms. In addition, their sustainability in a political environment, increasingly shifting toward development policies, hinges on the dominant frame underlying the reforms as well as the properties of the network advancing them.