ABSTRACT
We have come to know much more about how powerful the social and organisational characteristics of neighbourhoods can be in the lives of people who live there. These ‘neighbourhood effects’ can be positive by providing resources and strengths that far outstrip anything that professional services could offer. Neighbourhoods with high levels of activity are likely to participate in projects at higher rates with, for example, more representatives on committees or higher levels of volunteering. Neighbourhood effects can also be quite destructive, presenting people with challenges such as high rates of crime, non-existent job opportunities and poor schools that very few individual families could surmount (Wilson 1996; Sampson 1999). Neighbourhoods can also be ‘closed’ in their affiliations, hostile to diversity, and a seedbed for hate groups
DEFINITION OF NEIGHBOURHOOD
A neighbourhood is a geographic zone or area which is continuous and surrounds some other point, usually home, and is smaller in size than some other recognised spatial entitity, for example a city sector or city. Neighbourhoods can be defined by individuals, groups of individuals or organisations and they may be defined for single functions or the overall set of household activities.
