ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes that a useful exercise is to define the principles that underlie the notion of "neighborhood." Inherent in this consideration is the role of social networks in neighborhoods, and how the social network is both determined by the neighborhood, and constitutive of it. The chapter suggests that there are four key principles that should be considered when defining neighborhoods: proximity, similarity, familiarity, and collective goods. The first three of these come from the psychology of liking literature, whereas the fourth comes from the sociology of organizations literature as well as the collective action literature. The chapter argues that the proximity, similarity and familiarity play an important role in tie formation, and they can impact the social network within a neighborhood. It also argues that the networks within such neighborhoods may have three consequences: enhancing cohesion, enhancing information flow, and enabling responses to collective action problems.
