Question

article on changing neighborhood​

Answer 1

Few studies examine how school and neighbourhood composition in the US correspond over time, particularly in a context of neighbourhood change. As neighbourhoods diversify along racial and economic lines, do public schools also diversify or grow increasingly dissimilar from their surrounding areas? Drawing on novel data linking neighbourhoods and schools in the US in 2000 and 2010, I document: how racial composition corresponds over time between traditional public schools and the neighbourhoods they serve; how the compositional gap changes when greater school choice is available; and how the compositional gap varies between neighbourhoods experiencing various trajectories of socioeconomic change. I find an increasing mismatch in the white composition of public schools and their surrounding neighbourhoods, specifically that schools enrol fewer white students than the composition of the neighbourhood. The compositional mismatch grows the most in neighbourhoods experiencing socioeconomic ascent, particularly as the number of nearby non-neighbourhood schools increases.

Answer 2

Explanation:

Cities, and therefore neighborhoods, are under constant change. Neighborhood changes may affect residents’ health in multiple ways. The Heart Healthy Hoods (HHH) project studies the association between neighborhood and residents’ health. Focusing on a middle–low-socioeconomic neighborhood in Madrid (Spain), our aim was to describe qualitatively its residents’ perceptions on the urban changes and their impacts on health. We designed a qualitative study using 16 semi-structured interviews including adult residents and professionals living or working in the area. Firstly, we described the perceived main social and neighborhood changes. Secondly, we studied how these neighborhood changes connected to residents’ health perceptions. Perceived major social changes were new demographic composition, new socio–cultural values and economic changes. Residents’ negative health perceptions were the reduction of social relationships, increase of stress and labor precariousness. Positive health perceptions were the creation of supportive links, assimilation of self-care activities and the change in traditional roles. Neighborhood changes yielded both negative and positive effects on residents’ health. These effects would be the result of the interrelation of different elements such as the existence or absence of social ties, family responsibilities, time availability, economic resources and access and awareness to health-promoting programs. These qualitative research results provide important insight into crafting urban health policies that may ultimately improve health outcomes in communities undergoing change.

1. Introduction

Cities are dynamic structures in constant change [1]. Lefebvre highlighted the ability of the city to transform the environment: “in urban space something is always happening. Relations change. Differences and contrasts can result in conflict, or are attenuated, erode or corrode” [2]. Since Lefebvre’s study, cities have undergone many changes amid the intertwining relationship between individuals and structure. According to Giddens’ Theory of Structuration, individuals living in cities as urban agents not only accept the structure elements (rules and resources) surrounding them, but also modify the urban context constantly with their practices [3]. Inclusion of variables such as age, gender, ethnicity or class allowed us to explore how different population groups cope with urban changes [4].