Political Places: Neighborhood Social Organization and the Ecology of Political Behaviors

Abstract

Objective While scholars treat neighborhoods as important contexts of inequality, few studies explore the social processes that create disparities in neighborhoods’ political capacities. How does neighborhood social organization affect rates of political participation? Methods We combine surveys from the U.S. Census and Boston Neighborhood Survey (BNS), and administrative data from the City of Boston. Accounting for spatial dependence, we fit a series of regression models investigating the relationship between neighborhood social structure and four forms of political engagement: community meeting attendance, contacting local government for services, and voter turnout in a local and a national midterm election. Results We find higher rates of political participation in more stable neighborhoods, and lower rates of participation in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of immigrants. The relationship between collective efficacy and rates of political participation is not statistically significant in our models. We find a positive association between concentrated disadvantage and city election turnout, but this association is nonlinear: beyond a certain threshold, increases in disadvantage are associated with decreasing rates of participation. Conclusion We argue that neighborhoods are indeed political places, and residential stability, immigrant concentration, and—to a lesser extent—concentrated disadvantage are important factors affecting the civic capacity of urban communities.