Neighborhood Of Vancouver Research Articles

Do Neighbourhoods Influence the Readiness to Learn of Kindergarten Children in Vancouver? A Multilevel Analysis of Neighbourhood Effects

A growing body of literature has examined the effects of neighbourhood characteristics on child health and well-being and the mechanisms through which such effects may operate. Research investigating neighbourhood effects on children is based on the notion that individuals and families who live in a neighbourhood collectively create a social context that influences the developing child. In this paper we investigate the relationship between individual and neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics and kindergarten children's readiness to learn in Vancouver, Canada ( n = 3736), using multilevel modeling techniques and 1996 census data for Vancouver neighbourhoods ( n = 68). Findings suggest that although family-level characteristics carry the most weight in shaping children's readiness to learn, neighbourhood-level factors are independently associated with early developmental outcomes, particularly physical health and well-being, language and cognitive development, and communications skills and general knowledge. The strongest neighbourhood characteristics associated with readiness to learn were median income and the percentage of single-parent families. Also important were the percentage of the population who had not moved in the previous five years and the percentage of the population whose mother tongue was non-English. The latter neighbourhood characteristic was an especially strong predictor of communication skills and general knowledge. The findings suggest that neighbourhood-based policies to improve physical health and well-being, language and cognitive development, and communications skills may also meet with some success.

Origin, employment status and attitudes towards work: immigrants in Vancouver, Canada

It is often implied in academic and public debate that non-immigrants and immigrants of various origin harbour different attitudes towards work. To examine whether these differences relate to men and women’s origin, labour market status, and length of time living at the place of settlement, an interview survey of 509 individuals was conducted in a predominantly Chinese-speaking neighbourhood, a Punjabi-speaking area and an English-speaking neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada. The results of the survey are critically interpreted in light of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. Although the study reveals origin-based differences in work attitudes, the article rejects the cultural essentialism that could be used to explain differences in economic performance.

Increased levels of mercury associated with high fish intakes among children from Vancouver, Canada

To assess exposure to mercury (Hg) among children in population subgroups whose traditional dietary practices include fish. We determined blood Hg, red blood cell phosphatidylethanolamine omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid as a marker of fish intake, and assessed indexes of childhood behavior in preschool children 1.5 to 5 years of age (n = 228) living in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The median blood Hg was 4.6 nmol/L, range 0-67.9 nmol/L. Twelve (6%) children, all of whom were Chinese, had a blood Hg > 28.9 nmol/L. Blood Hg, total fish intake, and eicosapentaenoic acid were higher among Chinese than Caucasian children; however, higher fish intake did not predict blood Hg. Blood Hg was inversely associated with attentional focusing in children over 3 years of age after adjusting for confounding family variables, iron deficiency anemia, and zinc deficiency. Major sources of fish among Chinese children were imported fish rather than local fish. Children from population subgroups within populations not considered at risk may be at increased risk of neurotoxicity caused by Hg exposure from fish.

In Sight, Out of View: A Tale of Three Monuments

Three monuments in Vancouver, British Columbia, located closely in time and geography and all concerning violence, were created not by one, but rather by three separate groups of advocates. Given that in each case the advocates were drawn from the socially marginalized, it would seem logical that the groups would have had to work together to accomplish something as complex as gaining access to public space with the permanence of monuments. But instead, a close examination of the development and uses of these three monuments reveals the profundity of several mechanisms of social distance. Those noted here include (a) the intransigence of structures of social exclusion, (b) the dispossession caused by the legacy of colonialism, and (c) the nature of trauma. In this essay, I argue that these mechanisms each created specific dynamics that amplified, rather than reduced, barriers between the three groups of advocates. Following an introduction to the Vancouver neighbourhood and each monument, I detail how each mechanism worked to show that what is in sight may nevertheless be out of view.

Flowers in the bathtub: boundary crossings at the public–private divide

Legal spaces are said to be a crucial materialization of law, serving to communicate legal meaning and, in so doing, helping to produce a liberal–legal consciousness. Given its centrality to legal ordering and liberal ideology, the spatial manifestation of the public–private divide, especially when related to property, would appear to be particularly important in this regard. Public and private are assumed to be both mutually exclusive and exhaustive. Drawing upon empirical research conducted in a neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada, I argue that spatial and legal categories such as public and private may be more fluid than one might suppose. While the public/private divide is clearly powerful, and informs much policy and governmental action, it is not necessarily the case that it has the purchase on everyday life that some scholars have suggested. People may live in more complicated and overlapping worlds when it comes to supposedly determinate categories such as property.

Organizational Obstacles to Participation in Community Crime Prevention Programs

The term "organizational obstacles" refers to impediments to participation in community crime prevention groups and activities that stem from program implementation weaknesses. Given the importance that community-based organizations (CBOs) play in mobilizing neighborhoods, these weaknesses can be fatal to collective crime prevention efforts. Based upon research in a poor, high-crime neighborhood in Vancouver, Canada, this article identifies and examines how CBOs may actually inhibit participation in collective crime prevention groups and activities. Program implementation deficiencies that contributed to low participation rates in this neighborhood include weak and ineffectual community outreach and communication, a lack of strong leadership, inadequate resources, a technical and instrumental approach to crime prevention, and the nurturing of a narrow sociodemographic identity of crime prevention program participants that may be exclusionary. The inadequacies of the dominant crime prevention theories and the failure of applied models in promoting a broad-based mobilization of disadvantaged neighborhoods expose the need to develop and apply alternative theories to these unique environments. These alternative theories must pay greater attention to essential collective action processes underlying community crime prevention, emphasizing emotionally based organizing approaches (such as political advocacy, social development, and community development), which may appeal more to the poor and other marginalized groups.

Gender, Class and Home Ownership: Placing the Connections

This paper contributes to understandings of how gender interacts with the social class implications of home ownership. It is argued that the connections between gender, class and home ownership have only been partially elaborated, and suggested that a more specific focus on identity and the socio-spatial context facilitates a more complex portrayal of these connections. Using material from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 60 men and women in two neighbourhoods in Vancouver, British Columbia, it will be demonstrated that, contrary to common expectations, home ownership is an important component of both middle-class masculinity and middle-class femininity. However, there is no singular or linear connection between gender, class and home. Instead, there is conflict between familial and status expressions of home, conflict that varies for men and women and according to geographical location.

Overcoming barriers to communication between police and socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods: a critical theory of community policing

This research paper explores barriers to communication between police and residents of socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods (SDNs). Using a participant observation approach, research in a poor, high-crime, muiti-ethnic neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada examined communication between police and neighbourhood residents. Communication problems that were apparent included one-way dialogue between police and neighbourhood residents, the inability of police to effectively communicate with minority and special needs groups, and the promulgation of community policing as a purposive rational model which obfuscates an empathetic dialogue between police and SDN residents. These communicative problems limited the success of community policing and crime prevention in this neighbourhood and perpetuated the asymmetrical relations between many residents and the police. Indeed, traditional community policing models have generally failed SDNs because they do not recognize how police communication with residents can continually reproduce an asymmetrical power relationship between the two. The infusion of Habermasian critical theory into community policing represents one means to overcome the communicative obstacles that perpetuate the asymmetrical power relations between police and SDN residents. lt does so by emphasizing a communicative action that attempts to expose and deconstruct asymmetrical social and personal power relationships and replace them with modes of communication that result in a more empathetic relationship. The communicative emphasis in a critical theory of community policing is a commitment to forward policing in SDNs as a democratic and empowering process.

“Life on the Upslope”: The Postmodern Landscape of Gentrification

The significance of the changing meaning of the inner city to the process of gentrification is explored. Recent researchers taking a ‘production of gentrifiers' perspective have focused on how restructuring of production and reproduction has generated a growth in the number of households which are most likely to benefit from inner-city living. That argument is extended with reference to cultural change, interweaving theoretical issues with an account of the postmodern landscape of a redeveloped neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada. Connections are made between a number of practices, including planning and architectural design, advertising and marketing strategy, and the life-style of ‘New Class' gentrifiers. Dynamic relations between emergent and dominant cultures are traced in terms of their impact on the transformation of this landscape. Postmodern landscapes are ambiguous in their meaning; they have come to represent both a reaction against corporate visions of the city, and a confirmation of the vigour of the commodity form. This tension is examined in terms of the interplay between the construction of the postmodern landscape and the constitution of gentrifiers as a social group.

Alternative Housing Price Indices: An Evaluation

This paper reports on research in which eleven alternative housing price indices are constructed for two Vancouver neighbourhoods for the period from 1957 to 1979. Three criteria for good indices are presented, and the eleven indices, as well as several government and industry indices are evaluated in accordance with those criteria. It is determined that, almost surprisingly, an index based on mean sales values performs well, as do several of the hedonic price equation based indices. Several policy implications of the analysis are then discussed.

An Empirical Examination of the Stability of Housing Price Equations Over Time

This study investigates the extent to which the coefficients of housing price equations are stable over time. Using annual data from 1959 to 1979 for a large neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, a series of twenty‐four housing price equations is estimated. The estimated coefficients exhibit substantial instability over the period. Further, prediction errors are generally minimized for a given year when the coefficients estimated for that year are used to predict. The results strongly suggest that such equations should be recalibrated each year.