Does Changing Neighborhoods Change Lives?

Neighborhood effects on the lives of families and young people have long been a focus of sociological research (Mayer and Jencks 1990; Sampson 2012). Theoretically, neighborhoods are important contexts for socialization and development, as well as places where we find some of the structural mechanisms that determine inequality and opportunity. Such theoretical expectations have led many social scientists to surmise that neighborhoods are important determinants of life chances.