ABSTRACT
During the last two decades, the number of publications on neighbourhood effects has increased and has resulted in cumulative evidence, if the first systematic review by Jencks ampentity Mayer (1990) is compared to the more recent ones (Dietz, 2002; Leventhal ampentity Brooks-Gunn, 2000; Sampson et al., 2002). Irrespective of the large number of empirical studies, only a few have addressed the problem of internal heterogeneity of the neighbourhoods. The two strains of research, neighbourhood contexts effects and social mix were only recently brought together (Atkinson, 2005; Ostendorf et al., 2001). However, the concept of social mix or social balance is closely related to the discussion of neighbourhood effects, since the concept of social mix implicitly rests upon the explicit and central assumption of neighbourhood effects.
