Urban social ecology and neighbourhood effects revisited

The urban socio-ecological approach of the Chicago school of sociology has been the dominating perspective in the study of the neighbourhood. Yet recent empirical studies have found limited or even no statistically significant contributions coming from neighbourhood effects. There is a need to thoroughly rethink how we frame the relevant factors, the mechanisms, the processes, and other mediating and counteracting factors in the study of neighbourhood. This chapter seeks to engage in a critical review of the urban socio-ecological approach to the study of neighbourhood effects and the recent challenges from new (critical) urban sociology as well as the issues the study of neighbourhood effects has to resolve. A re-examination of neighbourhood effects in such a context would help to shed light on the building of theories on neighbourhood effects as well as on the policy discourse that relates to neighbourhood effects, like mixed neighbourhoods and social mixing policies.