Neighborhood Change

The analysis of neighborhood change focuses primarily on housing markets and the role of residential mobility in shaping and reshaping neighborhood character within a metropolitan area. Arguably the inspiration for the earliest work in urban geography focused on issues of neighborhood change. Certainly, interest in the topic persisted over decades of spatial research as geographers examined the dynamic processes of neighborhood change, asking questions regarding such apparently diverse topics as urban structure and growth, socioeconomic process and residential markets, and social justice in the city. New trends in urban research tend to substitute the phrase “neighborhood scale” with more specific terms such as gentrification. Yet the neighborhood scale of analysis continues to underpin a great deal of research on metropolitan areas just as it draws attention to the complexity involved in conceptualizing the economic, social, cultural, and political processes associated with the theme of neighborhood change. Postcolonial critiques inspire analyses that consider recent trends in rapid urbanization and associated neighborhood level transformations. Recent calls for a relational comparative urban research requires reconceptualization of the definition of neighborhood as well as a consideration of change affecting neighborhoods and urban areas as it occurs throughout the world.