Freedom from the tyranny of neighbourhood
Rethinking sociospatial context effects
A Petrovic (TU Delft - Urban Studies)
D.J. Manley (TU Delft - Urban Studies, University of Bristol)
Maarten van Van Ham (University of St Andrews, TU Delft - Urban Studies)
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Abstract
Theory behind neighbourhood effects suggests that people’s spatial context potentially affects individual outcomes across multiple scales and geographies. We argue that neighbourhood effects research needs to break away from the ‘tyranny’ of neighbourhood and consider alternative ways to measure the wider sociospatial context of people, placing individuals at the centre of the approach. We review theoretical and empirical approaches to place and space from diverse disciplines, and explore the geographical scopes of neighbourhood effects mechanisms. Ultimately, we suggest how microgeographic data can be used to operationalise sociospatial context, where data pragmatism should be supplanted by a theory-driven data exploration.