Research Planning Grant: Urban Neighborhood Development and Community Well-being

SES-0617084 Kesha MooreDrew大学本研究项目的重点是城市发展活动增强贫困城市社区的物质，经济和社会结构以及居住在其中的低收入居民的福祉的机制。城市贫困集中的问题影响到一系列公共政策问题，包括福利改革、教育改革以及健康和安全。各级政府的政策制定者正在寻找有效的策略来重建低收入社区并改善低收入人群的社会成果。许多城市学者认为，城市社区内经济和社会资本的枯竭是造成目前与长期贫困和城市衰落有关的模式的一个关键因素。社区发展倡议的倡导者援引城市生态理论，认为基于地点的战略可以改善社区的结构，增加居住在这些社区的低收入居民的社会和经济资本。这种观点认为，增加低收入社区中中上阶层居民的比例将增加周边社区的经济和社会资源。本研究探讨混合收入住宅开发在改善社区的物质、经济和社会结构以及低收入居民的社会成果方面的成功。该研究使用混合方法研究设计来比较费城三个类似的低收入社区的生命周期：一个经历了中产阶级化，一个经历了社区赞助的混合收入发展，一个没有经历任何公共或私人投资。这三个社区都存在于同一个地方政治经济中，并且都面临着与集中的城市贫困相关的类似挑战。然而，其中一个社区制定了一项社区控制的发展战略，被称为黑人美国梦。本研究将通过衡量社区福祉的五个方面来研究开发活动对社区的影响：改善物质基础设施，提高经济生产力，加强社区机构，提高安全性，增加低收入居民的社会资本。 更广泛的影响。 该研究项目为在主要本科院校对社会学感兴趣的学生提供了参与数据收集，分析和传播研究成果的机会。此外，研究结果将提供有价值的信息，帮助我们更好地了解社会互动和社会机构的类型，这些类型是产生社会资本从特权较高的个人转移到特权较低的个人所必需的。

SES-0617084Kesha MooreDrew UniversityThis research project focuses on the mechanism by which urban development activities enhance the physical, economic and social structure of impoverished urban neighborhoods and the well-being of low-income residents that inhabit them. The problems of concentrated urban poverty influences a range of public policy issues, including welfare reform, education reform, as well as health and safety. Policy makers at all levels of government are searching for effective strategies to rebuild low-income neighborhoods and improve social outcomes for low-income people. Many urban scholars identify the depletion of economic and social capital within urban neighborhoods as a critical factor in producing the current patterns associated with chronic poverty and urban decline. Advocates for community development initiatives invoke urban ecological theory to suggest that place-based strategies can result in improvements of the structure of the neighborhood and increased social and economic capital for low-income residents inhabiting these communities. This perspective asserts that increasing the proportion of middle and upper-middle class residents in a low-income neighborhood will increase the economic and social resources available to the surrounding community. This research studies the success of mixed-income housing development in improving the physical, economic, and social structure of the neighborhood as well as the social outcomes of its low-income residents. The study uses a mixed-method research design to compare the life cycle of three similar low-income neighborhoods in Philadelphia: one that has experienced gentrification, one that has experienced a community-sponsored mixed-income development, and one that has not experienced any public or private investment. All three neighborhoods exist in the same local political economy and start with similar challenges associated with concentrated urban poverty. However, one of the neighborhoods has enacted a community-controlled development strategy, known as the Black American Dream. This study will study the impact of development activities on neighborhoods by measuring five dimensions of community well-being: improved physical infrastructure, increased economic productivity, strengthened community institutions, increased safety, and increased social capital of low-income residents. Broader impacts. The research project provides students interested in sociology at a predominantly undergraduate institution with the opportunity to engage in data collection, analysis, and the dissemination of research findings. Also, research findings will provide valuable information that will help us to better understand the types of social interactions and social institutions that are needed to produce a transfer of social capital from more privileged individuals to less-privileged ones.