ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a theoretical and methodological framework for comparative urban studies grounded in the proposition that a neighborhood depends not only on its own conditions, as typically conceived, but also on the conditions of the neighborhoods to which its residents are connected, through networks of everyday urban mobility. The results offer a new way of thinking about neighborhood effects, the dynamics of everyday urban mobility, spatial inequality, and social segregation that can be studied in a comparative framework in cities anywhere. Recent research has analyzed large-scale social media and cell phone data to estimate travel patterns for large populations, examining the everyday movement of residents throughout multiple cities. In The Truly Disadvantaged, Wilson famously argued that living in disadvantaged neighborhoods undermines life chances because residents are isolated from middle-class or “mainstream” neighborhoods with greater resources and opportunities. A neighborhood network approach has implications for more than what happens in a given neighborhood.
