Neighborhood Conflicts Research Articles

The KIND Challenge community intervention to reduce loneliness and social isolation, improve mental health, and neighbourhood relationships: an international randomized controlled trial.

Loneliness and social isolation are risk factors for poor health, but few effective interventions are deployable at scale. This study was conducted to determine whether acts of kindness can reduce loneliness and social isolation, improve mental health, and neighbourhood social cohesion. Three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were conducted in the USA, UK, and Australia, involving a total of 4284 individuals aged 18-90years old, randomized to the KIND challenge intervention or a waitlist control group. Participants allocated to the intervention were asked to do at least one act of kindness per week within a four-week period. The primary outcome was loneliness and secondary outcomes included measures of social isolation, mental health, and neighbourhood social cohesion. There was a significant, albeit small, intervention effect after four weeks for reduced loneliness in the USA and the UK, but not for Australia. Relative to controls, KIND challenge participants also showed significantly reduced social isolation and social anxiety in the USA, and reduced stress in Australia. There was also reduced neighbourhood conflict in the USA, increased number of neighbourhood contacts in the USA and Australia, greater neighbourhood stability and feelings of neighbourhood importance in the UK, and better neighbourhood social relationships in Australia. Promoting the provision of social support through small acts of kindness to neighbours has the potential to reduce loneliness, social isolation and social anxiety, and promote neighbourhood relationships, suggesting a potential strategy for public health campaigns. Clinical Trials Registry. NCT04398472. Registered 21st May 2020.

Living in a Condominium Regime: Neighborhood Conflicts in Low-Income Housing, Tijuana, Baja California – A Secondary Publication

This paper analyzes neighborhood conflicts arising from the condominium property regime, under which social housing promoted by Mexican government institutions and private developers is acquired. This regime has facilitated access to housing for the salaried population, but it is far from contributing to the attainment of the right to housing. The research takes as case studies housing complexes located in the city of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. The analysis included a mixed methodology. Firstly, similar case studies were analyzed; secondly, a review of the Condominium Property Regime Law was carried out in order to understand its implications. In view of the pandemic situation, a virtual survey was applied to the inhabitants of these areas, as well as interviews with presidents of neighborhood committees of these complexes. From the above, it was found that this form of ownership generates conflicts, reflected in the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants with their housing, disagreements and controversies in their organization and coexistence. The inhabitants have to collectively solve the problems they face, related to the maintenance and use of common areas, insecurity, and cleanliness, among others. In addition, there is a lack of support from local authorities. With this, it is concluded that although the inhabitants have a space that solves their housing problem, it does not manage to be a space that adequately guarantees their right to housing.

Sages of the street: violence management and neighborhood conflict among crime- and violence-exposed young males in southwest Houston

ABSTRACT This study presents efforts to mitigate the likelihood of violent victimization among a network of young males with varying degrees of criminal involvement and previous victimization. Already inhabiting an environment in which poverty, institutional segregation, drugs, guns, and gangs are prevalent, the young males’ risk of victimization is heightened by their volatile relationships, presence in crime-prone places and connection to illegal activities. Findings from ethnographic observations of violence management practices show that the young males’ interactions and whereabouts in the neighborhood are guided by knowledge of their neighborhood’s physical and administrative boundaries, built environment, and markers of place – all of which are used to demarcate places of belonging and relative safety. Broadening the conception of neighborhood conflict and violence management beyond their relation to identity performance and defended territory, this study articulates violence management as a contextually-informed skill set.

Exploring the Drivers of Child Maltreatment Under- and Overreporting: A Qualitative Study

Child abuse and neglect (CAN) is a complex issue that is subject to both under- and overreporting; yet, research into the underlying neighborhood-level drivers of these practices remains limited. The current study gathered perspectives from 30 child protective service (CPS) workers and agency leaders in Southern California neighborhoods to identify perceptions of social and contextual neighborhood factors that might influence over- and underreporting of CAN. The data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach, which revealed five themes: (a) neighborhood conflict, (b) neighborhood fear and mistrust, (c) neighborhood norms, (d) poor CAN reporting knowledge, and (e) mandated reporters’ discretion. These themes highlight the potential impact of neighborhood contexts and social dynamics on CAN reporting practices, emphasizing the need for prevention and early intervention neighborhood-level initiatives that improve CPS relationships within their local community.

Being One of Us: The Role of Mutual Recognition and Emotion in Shaping Legal Consciousness in a Taiwanese Neighbourhood Dispute

AbstractLiterature on neighbourhood disputes has explored legal consciousness by focusing on identity, personal relationships, and community norms. However, it still remains unclear how affective factors and one’s sense of identity can influence the social practice of law and how the recursive relationship between law, emotion, and identity can influence life in particular communities. This study explores the dynamics of identity/alterity construction, and the role of emotion in shaping these dynamics during a neighbourhood conflict in Taipei, Taiwan. This dispute highlights how ordinary Taiwanese people’s legal consciousness is constituted through a culturally embedded sense of emotion (qíng) and belonging (zìjǐrén). Analysis of “The Noodle Shop Case” advances our understanding of the social presence and authority of law and the ways in which the role of law changes according to how individuals feel as they seek both mutual recognition and justice.

Women’s Criminality in Europe, 1600–1914 edited by Manon van der Heijden, Marion Pluskota, and Sanne Muurling

This collection addresses women’s criminality from the perspectives of history and historical criminology, recognizing that gendered expectations have long affected the prosecution, understanding, and study of crime and criminals. The authors are confident that contextualisation is “the key to understanding female crime, its representation and its variation in time and space,” and that historians of crime must therefore pay more attention to socioeconomic factors, such as social mobility, employment, and migration patterns, than has generally been the case (4). To do so effectively requires first that female criminals be identified. Hence, the research concentrates on the lower courts, where women appeared in much larger numbers than in the superior courts. The additional records on which the authors rely give the volume a mainly urban focus, but comparisons to the male experience make the findings particularly insightful and persuasive.The chapters are organized around three main themes—violence and women, prosecution and punishment, and representations of crime. But the geographical and chronological coverage is not quite as the book’s title suggests. Three largely historiographical essays (Chapters 1, 2, and 9) cover most, or all, of the period from 1600 to 1900. The remaining eight chapters, all based on extensive archival research, tend to focus on the later nineteenth century, particularly in England (Chapters 4, 6, 7, and 10) but also in Australia (without explanation for its inclusion in a book about criminality in Europe) and the Netherlands.Only two chapters adopt an early modern perspective, both offering fascinating appraisals of male and female defendants. Sara Beam’s examination of the prosecution of adultery in Geneva shows that although gender was relevant, social status and the authorities’ concern with rooting out sin were also crucial factors. Muurling provides a carefully evidenced explanation for how and why people used the accessible Tribunale del Torrone as a strategic means of conflict resolution in Bologna.Three of the chapters set out to find the vanishing females posited by Feeley and Little in 1991.1 Van der Heijden concludes that better living standards and welfare provision had a greater impact on female crime rates than did confinement to the domestic sphere. Jo Turner uses her study of female-perpetrated assault in Stafford to suggest that when council housing was built in 1901, it reduced shared living space and thus neighborhood conflicts. Lucy Williams and Barry Godfrey utilize population data to identify prisons, asylums, and workhouses as “locations and methods through which deviant women could be dealt with throughout the life cycle” (133).The two thought-provoking chapters about release from prison that discuss recidivism in detail reveal that the experiences of women and men were significantly different. Helen Johnston and David Cox find that re-offending was higher among female ex-prisoners because re-integration into financially productive society was more difficult for them. Alana Piper et al. use a large data set of individuals returned to prison in Queensland to reach a similar conclusion: Women were more likely to be chronic recidivists because of the wide range of socioeconomic disadvantages that they faced, whereas men had a greater variety of pathways into and out of offending.Two of the three chapters about “representations” focus on newspapers. Daniel Grey’s examination of reports about child sexual assault exposes attitudes toward the gender, class, age, and sexuality of both victims and perpetrators. Clare Wilkinson quantifies accounts of domestic violence in Dutch newspapers to explain why they functioned mainly as human-interest stories rather than as subjects of debate. Sarah Auspert et al. explore a variety of European discourses about female juvenile delinquency that show institutionalization to have been the most common “solution” for criminal and problem girls since the eighteenth century.The book contains an unfortunately sizable number of minor typographical and grammatical errors, but the use of footnotes and a collective bibliography of nearly thirty pages make the volume a useful addition to the relevant literature. Scholars of women and crime, imprisonment and reoffending, newspaper reporting, and the multiple factors that influenced these matters will find much of interest and value.

Typhoon Haiyan survivors at the resettlement sites: Covid-19 pandemic realities and challenges.

More than 15 thousand households have been relocated in Tacloban North, Philippines, after typhoon Haiyan devastated the city in November 2013. While still recovering from the longer-term impacts of the typhoon, these households are currently enduring the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper reports the contemporary realities and challenges Haiyan survivors face at the resettlement sites of Tacloban city, Philippines based on the inputs of 19 key informants we interviewed from September to November 2020. Our data reveal that Covid-19 exacerbated survivors' access to essential social services such as water, education/learning, and health care. The inadequate shelter space forces survivors to apply non-engineered house repairs or stay out of the house despite quarantine, lockdown, and physical distancing protocols. The pandemic has significantly increased survivors' livelihood insecurity resulting in a surging incidence of hunger, petty crimes, and neighborhood conflicts. This paper brings to the fore typhoon survivors' contemporary, precarious, and challenging conditions in resettlement sites. Almost ten years since Haiyan, this paper explores the extended pathways of Haiyan survivors' strained and uneven recovery hampered by the contemporary public health crisis that is the Covid-19 pandemic.

코로나19 대유행기 서울시민 우울 관련 요인

This study aims to investigate correlates of depression in Seoul metropolitan citizen during COVID-19 pandemic. Data from 5,000 citizen aged 15 years old and above were drawn from the 2020 Urban Policy Indicator Survey. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed across gender. The finding indicates that women were more likely to report depression. Housing type, job, family conflict, and frequency of digital device service usage were correlated with depression in both gender. Working from home was associated with depression in men. Neighborhood conflict and perception on the society were associated with depression in women. The results suggested that emotional solidarity should be strengthened by increasing non-face-to-face contact using digital devices while maintaining physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plural and fluid place attachment amid tourism-induced neighborhood change in a disadvantaged neighborhood in South Korea

Many urban neighborhoods have emerged as new urban tourist destinations since increasing numbers of visitors seek to experience ‘authentic’ mundane experiences. Ihwa Mural Village (IMV), a disadvantaged urban neighborhood in Seoul, South Korea, is such a case whereby a public art project implemented by the government to regenerate disadvantaged areas has led to the touristification of the neighborhood. The socioeconomic reconfiguration of IMV has complicated people–place relationships and has engendered controversial outcomes. This research draws upon recent debates of ‘fluid and relational’ place attachment and employed qualitative methods to demonstrate how people continuously construct, adapt, and reshape their connections to place and attachments and respond to such dynamics during tourism-induced neighborhood change. Findings reveal that people’s place attachment is plural as it may not necessarily only premised on rootedness. Also, place attachment is multidimensional and fluid that could either amplify or attenuate during the trajectory of neighborhood change contingent upon the proximity to tourism hotspot, diverse neighborhood events affecting their quality of lives, and conflicting benefits. Comprehending the plurality and fluidity of place attachment is imperative to understand neighborhoods experiencing tourism-induced change since it could minimize the potential neighborhood conflicts.

Changes in the Function of Allotment Gardens in an Attractive Location Based on the Example of Tri-City in Poland

Allotment gardens are quite common in many European countries. In particular, they are an important part of the urban space in Central and Eastern Europe. They served to improve the inhabitants’ physical and mental well-being during the communist period and relieved the family budget thanks to their own crops. The article analyzes the functioning of allotment gardens in Poland based on the example of the Tri-City, with particular emphasis on allotment gardens in a prestigious, attractive location. Several research questions were asked regarding the change of the traditional function related to growing fruit and vegetables towards the modern function related to recreation and relaxation. A thesis was put forward that the attractive, seaside location of one of the allotment gardens on the border of Gdańsk and Sopot favors the dynamics of the changes in the function. New garden houses often resemble residential apartments in terms of comfort and function and are used for commercial rent during the summer, even though this is prohibited. In the study, the methods of a field query as well as a questionnaire survey and an in-depth interview were applied to check the state of the allotment holders’ knowledge on the applicable regulations regarding the functions of allotment gardens and their development, the size of garden houses and the rules of staying in the gardens, in particular living there. The questionnaire research and in-depth interviews were conducted at the beginning of 2020. The questionnaire research was conducted in February and March, and the in-depth interviews in May. The most pressing issues concerned the changing functions of allotment gardens and the perception of these changes by allotment owners who have gardens in a traditional form of cultivation. This study also allowed looking at possible neighborhood conflicts that may arise from a change in the function, in particular from the construction of houses with residential facilities, which encourages permanent residence in them, and sometimes subletting to tourists due to their attractive coastal location. The study helped to deepen the knowledge on the functioning of allotment gardens and transforming their functions into residential ones during the summer season. The obtained results show that nearly 60% of the surveyed respondents believe that seasonal occupation of allotment gardens should be allowed if their owners wish to do so. Most of the respondents encountered the problem of abnormal buildings and believe that the regulations in this respect should be followed. At the same time, they do not think that it is causing any problems for them. Conducting in-depth interviews, the information was obtained that the change of functions does not affect the existing, traditional users, and they mostly accept the changes taking place.

Conflictos vecinales y mediación social en los condominios populares de Lima (Perú)

En los últimos años se ha observado un continuo aumento en la aparición de los llamados condominios populares, urbanizaciones cerradas de bajo precio, con espacios y servicios comunes para sus vecinos, que se constituyen en unidades con personalidad propia dentro de la ciudad. Este boom constructivo se debe a una iniciativa estatal centrada en subvencionar la creación de nuevos fondos hipotecarios para la adquisición de viviendas sociales, destinadas, de forma preferente, a las clases media y baja de la población peruana, lo que, junto al incremento sostenido de los salarios, ha permitido su traslado a áreas más céntricas de la urbe. El fenómeno ha generado estrategias de movilidad social ascendente ligadas al cambio de domicilio. Pero esta movilidad no ha estado libre de la aparición de nuevos conflictos vecinales, como reconoce cerca del 70 % de la población limeña. En el presente trabajo, centrado en la ciudad de Lima, abordamos estos nuevos conflictos, tanto a nivel interpersonal como estructural, además de ofrecer una clasificación preliminar de los mismos. El estudio presta también atención a aquellas políticas sociales que pueden mejorar la situación y calidad de vida de los vecinos, como es la implantación de mediadores sociales en los que se ha centrado el trabajo de campo, ya que por su labor en diversos condominios ofrecen una amplia y crítica visión del tema.

Impact of Market-Rate Residential Parking Permit Fees on Low-Income Households

On-street parking is a poorly-managed public asset. In dense neighborhoods, this results in difficult space searches, neighborhood conflict, and opposition to housing development. Market-rate residential parking permit systems are a logical solution because they manage demand. However, these programs are regressive for low-income residents who buy a permit because the permit fee is a larger percentage of their income than for higher-income groups. This paper reports on a simulation of the burden of a market-based fee on households of different income classes using three low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles, California. Data from the American Community Survey, Consumer Expenditure Survey, and primary parking counts are the model inputs. The outputs are measures of the increase in a household’s annual transportation expenditure, by income class, after a market-rate permit fee is implemented. The results show that market-rate programs are indeed regressive for households that purchase a permit. But because many low-income households do not have a car, do not park on-street, or pursue alternative options to buying a permit, the magnitude of the effect of income class is not as large as is often assumed. The study concludes that the regressive effect of a market-rate residential parking benefit district should not be an impediment to implementing such a scheme because low-income permit purchasers can be subsidized with permit revenue from higher-income drivers in the district, resources from higher-income parking districts, or both. Additionally, revenues can be used to support transportation modes that particularly benefit all low-income residents.

Being Bewitched: A True Tale of Madness, Witchcraft, and Property Development Gone Wrong

Being Bewitched: A True Tale of Madness, Witchcraft, and Property Development Gone Wrong

Grid Governance in China's Urban Middle-class Neighbourhoods

AbstractThis article examines the so-called “grid governance” scheme, a widely used grassroots governance strategy implemented in urban China in recent years. Drawing on data collected in multiple cities from 2011 to 2016, it analyses in what ways, and to what extent, the state employs the grid governance scheme to resolve neighbourhood conflicts and reinforce governance in Chinese urban middle-class neighbourhoods. The findings highlight complex interactions under the scheme among the residents, the state and market actors in neighbourhood governance, including the resident volunteers, residents’ social groups, residents’ committees and property management companies. By coopting middle-class resident volunteers, maximizing the existing political influence of the retired urban elites, and establishing Party organizations in middle-class residential communities, the grid governance scheme has become a major vehicle for resident mobilization and conflict resolution, and a key governance mechanism to reinforce the Party's leadership in middle-class neighbourhoods.

CATEGORIZACIÓN DE LOS CONFLICTOS VECINALES Y LA IMPROCEDENCIA DE INVOCAR AUTORIZACIONES ADMINISTRATIVAS Y LA OBSERVANCIA DE LEYES Y REGLAMENTOS COMO JUSTIFICACIÓN SUFICIENTE PARA VULNERAR DERECHOS DE TERCEROS. COMENTARIO A LA SENTENCIA DE LA CORTE SUPREMA, DE FECHA 15 DE MARZO DE 2018, ROL N° 18.218-2017

Recientemente la Corte Suprema se ha pronunciado sobre un conflicto de vecindad cuyo origen fue el emplazamiento de un colector de aguas lluvias que conducia y descargaba artificialmente el torrente en una propiedad vecina. Esta sentencia sirve para abor- dar las relaciones de vecindad como los limites de la propiedad en interes privado, distinguir entre los ataques directos e indirectos a la propiedad, y en particular, destacar que las autori- zaciones administrativas y la observancia de leyes y reglamentos no son patente de corso para vulnerar derechos ajenos.

Shared latrines in Maputo, Mozambique: exploring emotional well-being and psychosocial stress

BackgroundApproximately 18% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s urban population relies on shared sanitation facilities, which are shared by one or more households. While there is growing recognition of sanitation’s relationship with stress and well-being – particularly among women – most research has focused on rural populations and the transition from open defecation and/or unimproved latrines to private shared sanitation. This study explores sanitation-related stressors among users of both improved and unimproved shared sanitation facilities.MethodsThis study was nested within the larger MapSan health impact trial (Trial Registration: NCT02362932). Participants were recruited from the control arm of the trial (Traditional Latrine (TL) users) and intervention arm, which received one of two improved shared sanitation facilities – Shared Latrines (SL) shared by up to 20 individuals and Community Sanitation Blocks (CSBs) shared by more than 20 individuals. Sampling was informed by a life stage perspective to reflect diversity in sanitation needs and experiences within the population. Data included 96 in-depth interviews, 7 focus group discussions, and 25 unstructured observations. Data collection and analysis followed a Grounded Theory approach, which was used to identify the key domains of sanitation-related stress among participants. A semi-structured tool was applied to all female interview transcripts to assess the frequency and severity of key stressors.ResultsParticipants reported stress due to: lack of safety; lack of privacy; disgust about the latrine condition; and collective action failure in terms of managing the latrine, often causing neighborhood conflict or unhygienic sanitation conditions. Fewer SL and CSB users reported specific stress domains and – with the exception of perceived safety – reported fewer severe stressors. The leading cause of stress reduction due to the intervention was decreased disgust followed by increased privacy and safety.ConclusionsOur data suggest that “improved”, shared facilities can reduce stress when proper maintenance and management systems are in place. Private, shared sanitation only had limited impact on users’ perceptions of safety, particularly at night, suggesting that safety concerns extend beyond the physical latrine structure. Our research demonstrates that factors including latrine location and neighborhood violence are important determinants of safety perceptions and corresponding psychosocial stress.

Neighbourhood conflicts, socio-spatial inequalities, and residential stigmatisation in Santiago, Chile

This paper addresses the complex relationship between social inequality and urban conflict by offering a systematic and comprehensive approach to the articulation between macro structural inequality (density, segregation, concentration of high-income), meso level symbolic inequality (territorial stigma) and micro level experiences of conflict and place attachment. We contend that micro-social, neighbourhood level conflicts -mistakenly understood as ‘neighbourhood nuisances’ (e.g. noise, odours, parking)- are associated with larger scale urban conflicts. We also argue that the development of affective ties with the neighbourhood in which they reside can insulate people from neighbourhood conflict, as well as helping to lessen the impact structural inequality and stigmatisation. Drawing on the results of a representative survey of 2300 individuals, carried out in Chile's capital city, Santiago, at the behest of the country's Ministry of Justice, we apply multilevel logistical regression models. The results obtained allow us to question the prevailing view that regards neighbourhood conflicts as essentially superficial and localised. Our results show that the incidence of these ‘nuisances’ is not solely associated with individual socioeconomic circumstances, suggesting that they rather form part of a common framework of intersectional vulnerabilities. We suggest that suitable responses include the promotion of active forms of interconnectedness, which empower actors and challenge the noxious effects of the neoliberal model of development.

Bringing urban governance back in: Neighborhood conflicts and depression

Urban governance and its impact on contentious politics have received remarkably little attention in existing studies on mental health. Drawing on a measure of neighborhood conflicts developed in a survey of thirty-nine urban neighborhoods in Guangzhou, China, this article investigates the potential link between urban governance and mental health. Net of sociodemographic, relational, and environmental measures, it finds that among residents' conflicts with different entities of urban governance, only those with local/grassroots governments are significantly associated with more depressive symptoms. Moreover, these subgroups of government-oriented conflicts associated with more depressive symptoms are related to neighborhood planning and communal properties, reflecting a dilemma in the Chinese model of urban governance. By offering a relational interpretation of neighborhood conflicts, this study not only challenges the previous view that community building in China improves mental health, but calls attention to the significance of urban governance in research on mental health.

Your war, my problem: How conflict in a neighbour country hurts domestic development

This paper explores the transmission mechanisms of the impact of civil conflict in the neighbourhood on the economic development of the domestic country. We study a set of endogenous relations linking growth and its fundamental causes, domestic conflict and conflict in the neighbourhood. Methodologically, we go beyond a reduced-form single equation model to estimate a system of four equations where neighbourhood conflict affects domestic civil conflict, institutions and economic integration. Civil conflict in the neighbourhood significantly increases the probability of domestic conflict, lowers the quality of domestic institutions, and reduces the degree of economic integration with the rest of the world. The dollar value of this damage cumulates over time depending on the frequency/duration of spatial conflict. Our simulations show that the cost to the domestic economy ranges between $506 and $14,165 in lost per-capita GDP over a period of fifteen years.

Contested Boundaries: Explaining Where Ethnoracial Diversity Provokes Neighborhood Conflict.

Concerns about neighborhood erosion and conflict in ethnically di- verse settings occupy scholars, policy makers, and pundits alike; but the empirical evidence is inconclusive. This article proposes the contested boundaries hypothesis as a refined contextual explanation focused on poorly defined boundaries between ethnic and racial groups. The authors argue that neighborhood conflict is more likely to occur at fuzzy boundaries defined as interstitial or transitional areas sandwiched between two homogeneous communities. Edge detection algorithms from computer vision and image processing allow them to identify these boundaries. Data from 4.7 million time- and geo-coded 311 service requests from New York City support their argument: complaints about neighbors making noise, drinking in public, or blocking the driveway are more frequent at fuzzy boundaries rather than crisp, polarized borders. By focusing on the broader sociospatial structure, the contested boundaries hypothesis overcomes the "aspatial" treatment of neighborhoods as isolated areas in research on ethnic diversity.