Neighborhood Identity Research Articles

Innovative housing models to support shared use of space: the case study of Sonnwendviertel Ost in Vienna

Amidst the persistent urban expansion in European cities, the need for high-quality housing for growing populations remains a challenge. Integrating newly developed housing areas into the urban fabric and fostering a distinct local identity pose additional challenges. Despite extensive research in this realm, there exists a gap in the examination of the extent of shared space utilization in new housing developments. This study fills that gap by analyzing the quantity, quality, and diversity of space utilization in new housing projects, focusing on the development processes and maintenance methods. The research, conducted through site and case study analyses of Sonnwendviertel Ost development area in Vienna, underscores that the shared utilization of spaces is closely tied to distinct housing models with varied levels of financing and involvement of diverse actors. Consequently, it provides insights into the housing models and their configurations that best facilitate the development of shared use of spaces in housing construction. This, in turn, is perceived as instrumental in cultivating a more robust neighborhood identity and enhancing the livability of communities, thereby contributing to sustainable urban development.

Local neighborhood affects stem rehydration under drought: evidence from mixtures of European beech with two different conifers.

Mixed-species forests are, for multiple reasons, promising options for forest management in Central Europe. However, the extent to which interspecific competition affects tree hydrological processes is not clear. High-resolution dendrometers capture sub-daily variations in stem diameter; they can simultaneously monitor stem growth (irreversible changes in diameter) and water status (reversible changes) of individual trees. Using the information on water status, we aimed to assess potential effects of tree species mixture, expressed as local neighborhood identity, on night-time rehydration and water stress. We deployed 112 sensors in pure and mixed forest stands of European beech, Norway spruce, and Douglas fir on four sites in north-western Germany, measuring stem diameter in 10-minute intervals for a period of four years (2019-2022). In a mixture distribution model, we used environmental variables, namely soil matric potential, atmospheric vapor pressure deficit, temperature, precipitation, and neighborhood identity to explain night-time rehydration, measured as the daily minimum tree water deficit (TWDmin). TWDmin was used as a daily indicator of water stress and the daily occurrence of sufficient water supply, allowing for stem growth (potential growth). We found that species and neighborhood identity affected night-time rehydration, but the impacts varied depending on soil water availability. While there was no effect at high water availability, increasing drought revealed species-specific patterns. Beech improved night-time rehydration in mixture with Douglas fir, but not in mixture with spruce. Douglas fir however, only improved rehydration at a smaller share of beech in the neighborhood, while beech dominance tended to reverse this effect. Spruce was adversely affected when mixed with beech. At species level and under dry conditions, we found that night-time rehydration was reduced in all species, but beech had a greater capacity to rehydrate under high to moderate soil water availability than the conifers, even under high atmospheric water demand. Our study gives new insights into neighborhood effects on tree water status and highlights the importance of species-specific characteristics for tree-water relations in mixed-species forests. It shows that drought stress of European beech can be reduced by admixing Douglas fir, which may point towards a strategy to adapt beech stands to climate change.

Convivialidad e identidad de barrio: un estudio de caso en un barrio superdiverso de Barcelona

Conviviality in superdiverse neighbourhoods has been studied in Anglo-Saxon and Hispanic contexts; however, few researchers have analysed the relationship between this and neighbourhood identity. The latter is an element of cohesion that can facilitate conviviality. Therefore, this article focuses on investigatingthe connection between conviviality and neighbourhood identity, in a superdiverse borough in Barcelona. A qualitative methodology was used with a case study design, in which neighbours were interviewed through semi-structured interviews, focus groups and a systematic evaluative discussion meeting with the community. A total of 79 people participated in all stages of the research. In this specificneighbourhood, the results showed that the relationship between conviviality and neighbourhood identity is based on the length of stay of the neighbours and the interaction in neighbourhood shops asinformal community spaces. But these aspects are also influenced by gender, age, and other elements of diversity. A significant obstacle was the “underground” racism of some native neighbours, which affects conviviality and makes it difficult for migrant neighbours to identify with the borough. These results arediscussed based on theoretical aspects and possible practical implications.

The 'Discovery' of Gentrification

This paper examines the rise of gentrification in 1970s Amsterdam, based on coverage of the Jordaan neighborhood in Het Parool and a limited number of other Dutch newspapers. Although the term was not yet common at the time, newspaper articles from the 1970s already show a critical attitude toward social change in a working-class neighborhood. Far before policymakers were talking about it, journalists identified the negative effects of gentrification, such as rising rents and a loss of neighborhood identity. The resistance and criticisms of Het Parool and original residents bear striking similarities to contemporary criticisms on gentrification, as visible in the mocking and stereotyping of gentrifiers. Interestingly, developments in American cities were used as a frame of reference for Dutch newspapers in this regard. This exploration of the initial phase of gentrification in Amsterdam shows that both residents and journalists have always viewed the process of gentrification with suspicion.

Community in times of COVID: building resilience in a self-help neighborhood in Medellin

ABSTRACT This article looks at resilience-building in Moravia, an inner-urban, self-help neighborhood constructed on and around the former principal landfill of Medellin, Colombia. Based on a photovoice project carried out with a group of children and youth in 2019, an image is presented of social cohesion within the neighborhood. Moravia's case shows that social cohesion in the neighborhood fosters three concrete forms of resilience-building: (1) maintaining networks of aid and care, (2) cultivating a sense of neighborhood identity, and (3) engaging in direct and indirect forms of reciprocity. Data from digital ethnography obtained in 2021 demonstrate that these resilience-building practices were maintained online during quarantine. This article contributes to the literature on social cohesion, first, by departing from children and youth views of community dynamics in their neighborhood and, second, by connecting social cohesion to resilience-building in the context of an auto-constructed, underprivileged neighborhood in Latin America and the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it contributes to the literature on the photovoice methodology and the expanding work on digital ethnography, respectively by showing the efficacy of photovoice when researching community-related themes with children and youth, and investigating neighborhood-based Facebook groups as a space for enhancing social cohesion and resilience in times of crisis.

“It’s not that I don’t like it here, it’s just that I eventually want to live somewhere else”: young refugees’ contested arrival experiences, local racialized discourses and emergent future selves in Amsterdam

ABSTRACT Although the urban fabric is often associated with relevant infrastructures that foster young refugees’ experiences of settlement and future imagining, a critical notion of place remains largely absent from the literature. This paper investigates refugee youths’ urban arrival and settlement processes by examining the role of public space, place and identity in their imagination of possible future selves. We use place identity as a dynamic, translocal and contested concept to explore how future selves are emplaced in multiple and contradictory ways. The paper reports on an eight-month ethnographic study in an underprivileged neighborhood in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, that is characterized by functionalism, social housing and a high concentration of refugee arrivals. We find that personal referents of public neighborhood places are important for nurturing young refugees’ specific hardships and traumas that threaten future self-imagination. We further demonstrate how momentary belongings due to diverse yet intertwined neighborhood identities foster the emergence of multiple possible future selves. Lastly, we show how local racialized discourses of place endanger and “trap” possible future self-concepts. We conclude that urban refugee youths’ future self-imaginations develop alongside multiple contested places and temporalities, and contribute to a relational understanding of urban processes and experiences of forced mobility and displacement.

The Lost Shantytowns of Barcelona

Shantytowns still existed in many of Southern Europe’s major cities in the second half of the 20th century, although many have now been demolished. The purpose of this article is to highlight the history and evolution of some of the main shantytowns that remained in Barcelona in the mid-1970s, track their subsequent demolition, and reflect on the fate of the shanty dwellers. This form of self-build housing, usually lacking in basic services, played a vital role in providing shelter for immigrant families and the urban poor. A strong neighbourhood identity existed in many of these shantytowns, and national and local policies that aimed at their demolition and the re-housing of residents, often in low-quality housing blocks, proved problematic. The shantytowns studied here are La Perona, the Tres Turons, Campo de la Bota, and Ramon Casellas, which together comprised over 2000 shanty dwellings in the 1970s. Drawing on photographs taken at the time and existing literature, and using recent images from Google Earth, the demise of these shantytowns is examined, and the policies and plans that determined their fate are discussed. This article finds that the shanty dwellers experienced mixed fortunes, some being forcibly removed and re-housed in tower blocks with associated social-economic problems, whilst others played an active part in the design of replacement housing, implemented in situ where the shanty dwellings once existed. This article contributes to existing studies on shantytowns in Barcelona, which received scant attention from academics at the time, and which only now are being recognised as an important aspect of Barcelona’s urban history.

No identity connections without representation? Exploring associations between neighbourhood opportunities, ethnic–ideal alignment and well‐being in Black, Indigenous and other youths of colour in Canada

AbstractIn Canada, Black, Indigenous and other youths of colour often have high aspirations, but many are not sure that they are attainable. Context can signal what is in or out of reach to youths, particularly environments that send repeated and proximal signals, like neighbourhoods. Notably, the Social Identity Approach suggests that in neighbourhoods with people like them doing well socioeconomically or being well represented in leadership, youths may see a place for people similar to them, which in turn could benefit how they view their identities and experience well‐being. In this exploratory research, Black, Indigenous and other youths of colour in Montréal (n = 179) were surveyed about their neighbourhood, social and future identities and well‐being. Regressions suggest that youths' neighbourhoods predict the extent to which they perceive that opportunities are accessible to people like them. Youths who reported more opportunities for people similar to them in their neighbourhood tended to report higher alignment between their racial/ethnic and ideal future identities and higher flourishing. The findings highlight the connection between neighbourhood factors—such as cues about whether similar people are welcomed, valued, and have access to opportunities—and the identities and well‐being of Black, Indigenous and other youths of colour.

Enterprise culture, neoliberalization, and cable television at the last-mile: A case-study of local cable operators in Mumbai

This paper centers last-mile distribution networks of cable television as a prism to analyze the political-economic, socio-spatial, and subjective transformations brought about by neoliberal reforms in India. I provide an on-ground perspective of enterprise culture and entrepreneurial citizenship based on an ethnography of Mumbai-based last-mile distributors of cable television also called cablewallahs. In the wake of their disempowerment in the television distribution value-chain, cablewallahs represent themselves as entrepreneurs at the core of India’s digital economy. I combine insights from enterprise culture scholarship, television studies and anthropologies of masculinity, to shed light on this enactment in the paper. I demonstrate that cablewallahs configure their citizenship as ‘entrepreneurial’ by aspiring to middle-class valorised notions of respectability and civic duty and sustaining their last-mile networks through intimate knowledge of clientele, networks of male conviviality and vernacular solidarities. I argue that in Mumbai, entrepreneurial citizenship emerges as a useful gendered subjective disposition for navigating socio-economic marginalization and subjective-material changes in neighbourhood identity brought about by neoliberalization.

Neighbourhood identity: a methodological perspective from Nantes-France

PurposeThis research aims to develop a method for defining the identity of multilayered neighbourhoods by taking a case study in Nantes/France. It utilizes the urban identity concept to achieve this goal, which is defined by physical and identificatory relation to the neighbourhood.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology includes historical periodical analysis, housing form and architectural stylistic definition, visualization and geographic information system (GIS) mapping. The research conducts spatial analysis to reveal the physical component of the urban identity of the neighbourhood and interviews (No = 50) with dwellers for the identificatory relation, asking about neighbourhood tangible/non-tangible elements. All these data are mapped through GIS.FindingsThe study found that the physical component is defined by three urban layers (identified as industrial, reconstruction and development, and post-industrial) and eleven housing typologies. As for the identificatory relation, the authors found that the interviewees mostly identified with their neighbourhood, whereas a minority did not. The most important form of identification with the neighbourhood was its atmosphere, and as reasons were given, the neighbourhood's positively evaluated quality, good location and social values.Originality/valueIt proposes the definition of the physical component through urban layers and housing typologies. The identificatory relation also considers the identification of the residents with the neighbourhood's tangible/non-tangible urban elements.

The more diverse the better: Identifying with a diverse neighbourhood mother community predicts greater intergroup contact

AbstractAlthough it has been shown that identification with a neighbourhood community can support intergroup relations within the community by providing resources to cope with intergroup contact, previous research has not investigated how the perceived diversity of the neighbourhood identity influences this process. This study extends research on neighbourhood identification by focusing on a specific group (mothers of small children), examining how and when identification with other mothers living in the same neighbourhood is related to intergroup contact with local outgroup mothers. We examined this in a survey study, for which we collected data from both Finnish majority and immigrant mothers at public maternal and child healthcare centres (N = 733). Our study showed that identification with the neighbourhood mother community was positively associated with intergroup contact, partly via perceived social support from other neighbourhood mothers for both Finnish majority and immigrant mothers. Our study additionally revealed that the perceived proportion of outgroup mothers in the local mother community moderated the relationship between identification and intergroup contact for both groups. Our findings highlight the significance of considering perceived diversity for determining when identification will support intergroup contact. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

Opportunistic Bacteria of Grapevine Crown Galls Are Equipped with the Genomic Repertoire for Opine Utilization.

Young grapevines (Vitis vinifera) suffer and eventually can die from the crown gall disease caused by the plant pathogen Allorhizobium vitis (Rhizobiaceae). Virulent members of A. vitis harbor a tumor-inducing plasmid and induce formation of crown galls due to the oncogenes encoded on the transfer DNA. The expression of oncogenes in transformed host cells induces unregulated cell proliferation and metabolic and physiological changes. The crown gall produces opines uncommon to plants, which provide an important nutrient source for A. vitis harboring opine catabolism enzymes. Crown galls host a distinct bacterial community, and the mechanisms establishing a crown gall-specific bacterial community are currently unknown. Thus, we were interested in whether genes homologous to those of the tumor-inducing plasmid coexist in the genomes of the microbial species coexisting in crown galls. We isolated 8 bacterial strains from grapevine crown galls, sequenced their genomes, and tested their virulence and opine utilization ability in bioassays. In addition, the 8 genome sequences were compared with 34 published bacterial genomes, including closely related plant-associated bacteria not from crown galls. Homologous genes for virulence and opine anabolism were only present in the virulent Rhizobiaceae. In contrast, homologs of the opine catabolism genes were present in all strains including the nonvirulent members of the Rhizobiaceae and non-Rhizobiaceae. Gene neighborhood and sequence identity of the opine degradation cluster of virulent and nonvirulent strains together with the results of the opine utilization assay support the important role of opine utilization for cocolonization in crown galls, thereby shaping the crown gall community.

In-between urbanism: The physical, functional, socio-cultural, and identity-forming role of the otla in informal settlements in Ahmedabad

Public/private interfaces play a key role in neighbourhood liveliness, economic exchange, safety, identity, and social life. In informal settlements, interfaces play additional roles in the incremental upgrading process and how open space is appropriated and contested. While typologies of public/private interfaces in informal settlements have been generalised, how informal interfaces change in response to cultural and place context are less understood. A detailed analysis of four communities in two informal settlements in Ahmedabad (India) – Ramapir No Tekro and Gandhi Vas – finds an interface typology unique to Ahmedabad: the otla. Data collection methods included participant observation, shared open space use observation, settlement and neighbourhood mapping, architectural documentation, creative activities with young people, and semi-structured interviews. Examining the physical dimension, practical function, socio-cultural role, and role in forming identity of otlas reveals that this relatively modest space effectively alleviates small dwelling size, contributes to individual dwelling and community identity, and provides an opportunity for residents to build social ties. Understanding the significance of otlas reveals the heterogeneity of informal settlements and can support interventions that better harness the potential of self-organised environments.

Green Neighbourhood Identity: How Residents Use Urban Nature Against Territorial Stigmatization in Finnish Housing Estates

ABSTRACT The 1960s housing estates are widely defamed in public discourse, including two neighbourhoods of focus in this research in the fast-growing “sustainable city” of Tampere, Finland. Based on a qualitative case study, this paper analyses how residents have used urban nature to counter territorial stigmatization. It views the relationship between territorial stigmatization and neighbourhood identity through urban nature, which has received minimal academic attention despite the increasing interest in green and climate-friendly sustainable cities. This paper argues that 1) the symbolic defamation of forest estates is a social process that has shadowed the housing estates; and 2) the residents of the housing estates constructed a “green neighbourhood identity” as a counter-narrative to shed the negative discourse regarding themselves and their neighbourhood. Urban nature has been an important source for constructing a positive neighbourhood identity but has not negated the historically produced territorial stigma.

Neighborhood Identity Formation and the Changes in an Urban Regeneration Neighborhood in Gwangju, Korea

Since the Urban Regeneration Act in 2013, central and local Korean governments have endeavored to regenerate deprived urban neighborhoods. This study analyzed how these efforts have changed the nature of neighborhood identity in Yanglim, Gwangju, Korea. The authors analyzed 62,386 Naver blog posts from 2013 to 2022, utilizing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) technique, Topic Modeling (i.e., Latent Dirichlet Allocation). Using trend analysis by topic, three phases were identified: (1) Phase 1: Flourishment (January 2013 to October 2016); (2) Phase 2: Maturation (November 2016 to February 2020); and (3) Phase 3: COVID-19 (March 2020 to October 2022). In the first phase, the collective actions between the local government and citizens to improve the declined neighborhood formed the Yanglim area’s reputation as the “History and Cultural Village” and as “Penguin Village”. The unique identity of the area in the second phase, along with gentrification issues, created a hot spot (e.g., cafés and restaurants), drawing the attention of tourists and locals. More recently, the Yanglim area has become a place for locals’ daily activities with their loved ones, as tourist traffic greatly dropped off due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Until now, the Yanglim area has experienced a process of successful urban regeneration from flourishment to degentrification. AI techniques represent a novel application that can support policy makers and stakeholders in understanding citizens and taking further actions to create economically and socially sustainable neighborhoods.

THE EFFECTS OF INTERACTIONS IN VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE SHAPING AND REPRODUCING OF CULTURAL MEMORY, NEIGHBORHOOD IDENTITY, AND CULTURE

This study aims to reveal the effect of virtual communities in social media on the reproduction of cultural memory, neighborhood identity, and culture. Another aim of the study is to investigate the potential of virtual communities to shape cultural memory, continuity, and social structure and to discuss the impact of individuals who can actively produce and share content in virtual communities on neighborhood identity and neighborhood culture. For this purpose, three research questions were put forward. RQ1: “How does interaction occur in social media, different from communities in the physical environment?” RQ2: “How are cultural memory, neighborhood culture, and identity rebuilt and shaped in the context of communication and interaction that emerges in social media virtual communities?” RQ3: “In virtual communities in social media, what is the potential of subcultures to influence or contribute to communities on a macro scale with the resulting interaction?” The theoretical approach of the research consists of Mead (2019), the representative of symbolic interactionism, and Goffman's (1978) self-society relationship with the presentation of the Self. In addition, cultural memory, neighborhood identity and culture, and the concept of the virtual community were mentioned, and the coding made for the research was directed in this direction. As a sample for the study, comments were obtained on the Tatavla'dan Kurtuluş’a virtual community on Facebook between 30 May and 30 December 2022 (n:1134), and these comments were analyzed by Van Dijk's discourse analysis method. According to the findings, the communities formed by the coming together of the selves in the micro context ensure the continuity of the neighborhood identity and culture that has been eroded in the virtual environment. However, the impact of these communities on face-to-face relations and institutions remains limited.

Two Whitmans: Peripheral Monumentality in South Philadelphia

This article examines the contemporary politics of commemoration through analysis of the public life of two statues of Walt Whitman in South Philadelphia. Sited near a highway on-ramp and the entrance to a shopping plaza, the monuments to Whitman accompanied and celebrated significant urban spatial transformations in the mid- to late-twentieth century. At the same time, they commemorate battles over neighborhood identity and Whitman’s legacy. In recent years, local conflicts over Whitman’s legacy have been revived in activism to remove a statue of the poet in neighboring Camden, New Jersey. But, in South Philadelphia, debates about the future of public monuments have largely ignored both representations of Whitman. As I trace the lives of both statues, I argue that the quiet persistence of the two South PhiladelphiaWhitmans illustrates the complex political power of public artworks occupying awkward spatial and social positions.

Social Sustainability and Globalization; A Resilient Quarter and Suq Mutrah in Muscat-Oman

This study examines the impact of globalization on the historic urban fabric of Mutrah, with a specific focus on the coastal neighbourhood of Sur al Lawatiyah and the development of the souq Mutrah in Muscat, Oman. The city's urban design reflects its challenging and fractured history, marked by fortified walls, towering forts, and a dense, clustered urban fabric, particularly during and after the Portuguese occupation. Additionally, the study explains how social sustainability, one of the key pillars of sustainability, has been affected by globalization. Despite being separated from the surrounding neighbourhoods by massive walls and gates, the souq Mutrah, located in the middle, is a crucial public space for people to gather, making it an essential element in Islamic neighbourhoods. Furthermore, the study examines the effect of the souq Mutrah's development on the surrounding neighbourhood of Sur Al-Lawatiyah. The souq has been redesigned and transformed into a larger market that attracts people from all over the world, reflecting the city's multi-cultural identity. Although some residents have created physical and social boundaries to protect themselves from visitors, the souq remains an important public space for locals to gather, trade, and work. Ultimately, the study concludes that the souq's development has increased social interaction and the sense of space without negatively affecting the surrounding neighbourhood's identity or way of life.

Citizen actions in touristic neighbourhoods: Barcelona as a case study

ABSTRACT Touristification transforms the urban life of many tourist destination cities, leading to changes in the uses and values of city real estate, and generating a displacement of the most vulnerable sectors of the population. The objective of this research is the analysis of citizens’ strategies for facing this transformation process, considering that the associative and protest tradition in neighbourhoods can dampen (and this is our hypothesis) the intensity and effects of touristification. Therefore, this work examines the responses to the touristification processes of two Barcelona city neighbourhoods: Barceloneta and Hostafrancs. The results show that these areas resist and preserve the neighbourhood identity thanks to the drive and proactivity of its associative and cooperative fabric, both social and commercial, together with some political instruments proposed by the local government; albeit with different manifestations and results. The analysis of in-depth interviews, complemented by data on the number of tourist accommodation and the evolution of residential housing prices, constitute the empirical basis for carrying out this work.

Pilot study of social and structural determinants of health (SSDOH) measures in the UPENN Alzheimer’s disease research center

AbstractBackgroundTo mitigate health and healthcare disparities in Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease related dementias (AD/ADRD) research and care, scientists must be able to characterize and measure social and structural determinants of health (SSDoH) that may help explain heterogeneity in cognitive, functional, and interventional outcomes in AD/ADRD.MethodParticipants (n = 70) were members of the UPENN ADRC clinical cohort with unimpaired cognition who completed the SSDoH measures via an online survey. SSDoH measures were chosen based on content and psychometric properties. Self‐report measures are in the following categories: (1) Education, (2) Occupation, (3) Economic Status and Strain, (4) Stressors and Subjective Stress, (6) Subjective Social Support and Status, and (7) Sociodemographic data, which included self‐report of age, race, language, disability, neighborhood, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity questions.ResultResults describe piloting the measures, the gaps and strengths of measures, and plans for future collection and analysis. The response rate was 74% (52 out of 70 participants started the survey). Most participants completed the survey within 25 to 30 minutes. Most participants reported being satisfied with the battery, and a few reached out to ADRC staff to express interest in volunteering additional data. Some revision to the longitudinal record of neighborhoods was needed.ConclusionA multidomain battery of SSDoH measures was feasible to implement in the UPENN ADRC clinical cohort. Routine collection of SSDoH may help researchers better understand factors that create disparities in AD/ADRD outcomes and develop interventions to mitigate them.