A Research Agenda for Neighborhoods

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in each area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. This timely book proposes a set of questions for a renewed research and practice agenda that recognizes the deep and historical work that has been done on understanding neighborhoods, taking advantage of data and technical innovations to propel it forward. It questions how neighborhoods are defined, how we think about and identify neighborhood effects and how new analytical tools and contemporary urban contexts allow for novel insights. Contributors adopt a multi-disciplinary and methodologically diverse approach to frame and analyze neighborhoods as places to document and understand, as sites of exposure and as units for planning and policy practice. Chapters propose that, in an age of increasingly global and a-spatial networks, place matters more than ever, and neighborhoods are key factors in determining individual economic and social outcomes. This Research Agenda analyzes neighborhoods as continual lenses for understanding social, economic, political and environmental change and evaluates the burdens and benefits for those living in them. A Research Agenda for Neighborhoods is an essential resource for scholars and students across the social sciences including urban studies, planning, economics, human geography, political science, public and social policy and sociology. Urban planners and policymakers will also benefit from its actionable recommendations.