The Limits of the Neighborhood Effect: Contextual Uncertainties in Geographic, Environmental Health, and Social Science Research

Abstract

This article draws on recent studies to argue that researchers need to be attentive to the limits of the neighborhood effect as conventionally understood. It highlights the complexities of contextual influences and the challenges in accurately representing and measuring individual exposures to those influences. Specifically, it discusses the idiosyncratic and multidimensional nature of contextual effects, the temporal complexities of contextual influences, the frame dependence of exposure measures, selective mobility bias, and publication bias in neighborhood effects research. It also discusses how contextual uncertainties could be mitigated in future research (e.g., through collecting and using high-resolution space–time data and moving toward frame-independent exposure measures with results that are not affected by how data are organized with respect to space and time).