The assumed negative effects of living in a low-income neighbourhood on the social mobility of already-poor residents are central to the current political debate about disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the Netherlands. A case study in The Hague addresses the question of which social mechanisms in the daily life of residents might contribute to reduced social mobility in the long run. On the basis of interviews with neighbourhood experts and residents about local social networks, job search strategies and work ethics, evidence can be found for limited opportunity structures and negative socialisation processes. However, the findings suggest that these mechanisms work more subtly than generally assumed in the research literature, as the specific socio-spatial context also provides opportunities and negative effects are selective rather than generic.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aalbers, M.B. and Deurloo, R. (2003) Concentrated and condemned? Residential patterns of immigrants from industrial and non-industrial countries in Amsterdam, Housing, Theory and Society, 20, pp. 197—208.
2.
Beckhoven, E. Van and Kempen, R. Van (2003) Social effects of urban restructuring: a case study in Amsterdam and Utrecht, the Netherlands, Housing Studies , 18, pp. 853—875.
3.
Blokland, T. (2003) Urban Bonds. Cambridge: Polity Press.
4.
Briggs, X., DE Souza (1997) Moving up versus moving out: neighborhood effects in housing mobility programs, Housing Policy Debate, 8, pp. 195—232.
5.
Briggs, X., DE Souza (2003) Re-shaping the geography of opportunity: place effects in global perspective, Housing Studies, 18, pp. 915—936.
6.
Buck, N. and Gordon, I. (2004) Does spatial concentration of disadvantage contribute to social exclusion?, in: M. Boddy and M. Parkinson (Eds) City Matters: Competitiveness, Cohesion and Urban Governance, pp. 237—253. Bristol: The Policy Press.
7.
Dekker, K. and Bolt, G. (2005) Social cohesion in post-war estates in the Netherlands: differences between socioeconomic and ethnic groups, UrbanStudies, 42, pp. 2447—2470.
8.
Ellen, I.G. and Turner, M.A. (1997) Does neighborhood matter? Assessing recent evidence , Housing Studies, 8, pp. 833—866.
9.
Fischer, C.S. (1982) To Dwell among Friends. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
10.
Friedrichs, J. and Blasius, J. (2003) Social norms in distressed neighbourhoods: testing the Wilson hypothesis, Housing Studies, 18, pp. 807—826.
11.
Galster, G. (2003) Investigating behavioral impacts of poor neighborhoods: towards new data and analytic strategies, Housing Studies , 18, pp. 893—914.
12.
Galster, G. (2005) Neighborhood mix, social opportunities and the policy challenges of an increasingly diverseAmsterdam . Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam.
13.
Granovetter, M. (1995) Getting a Job. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
14.
Hedström, P. and Swedberg, R. (2001) Social mechanisms, Acta Sociologica , 39, pp. 281—308.
15.
Klaauw, B. Van Der and Ours, J.C. Van (2003) From welfare to work: does neighborhood matter? , Journal of Public Economics, 87, pp. 975—985.
16.
Kleinhans, R. (2002) Displaced but still moving upwards in the housing career? Implications of forced residential location in the Netherlands, Housing Studies, 18, pp. 473—499.
17.
Laan Bouma-Doff, W. Van Der (2005) De Buurt als Belemmering. Assen : Koninklijke Van Gorcum BV.
18.
Laan Bouma-Doff, W. Van Der (2007) Confined contact. Residential segregation and ethnic bridges in the Netherlands, UrbanStudies, 44(5/6), pp. 997—1017.
19.
Lewis, O. (1968) The culture of poverty, in: D. P. Moynihan (Ed.) On Understanding Poverty: Perspectives from the Social Sciences, pp. 187—200. New York : Basic Books.
20.
Lin, N. ( 1999) Social networks and status attainment, Annual Review of Sociology, 25, pp. 467—489.
21.
Lofland, L. (1973) A World of Strangers: Order and Action in Urban Public Space. New York: Basic Books .
22.
Macdonald, R., Shildrick, T., Webster, C. and Simpson, D. (2005) Growing up in poor neighborhoods: the significance of class and place in the extended transitions of `socially excluded' young adults, Sociology, 39, pp. 873—891.
23.
Massey, D.S. and Denton, M.A. (1993) American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
24.
Ministry Of Bzk (2004) Samenwerken aan de krachtige stad. Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, The Hague.
25.
Musterd, S. (2003) Segregation and integration: a contested relationship , Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 29, pp. 623—641.
26.
Musterd, S. and Andersson, R. (2005) Housing mix, social mix and social opportunities , Urban Affairs Review, 40, pp. 761—790.
27.
Musterd, S., Vos, S. De and Ostendorf, W. (2003) Neighborhood effects and social mobility: a longitudinal analysis, Housing Studies, 18, pp. 877—892.
28.
Sampson, R.J., Morenoff, J.D. and Gannon-Rowley, T. (2002) Assessing `neighborhood effects': social processes and new directions in research, Annual Review of Sociology, 28, pp. 443—478.
29.
Small, M.L. and Newman, K. (2001) Urban poverty after The Truly Disadvantaged: the rediscovery of the family, the neighborhood, and culture, Annual Review of Sociology, 27, pp. 23—45.
30.
Uitermark, J. (2003) Social mixing and the management of disadvantaged neighbourhoods: the Dutch policy of restructuring revisited, UrbanStudies, 40, pp. 531—549.
31.
Wacquant, L. (1993) Urban outcasts: stigma and division in the Black American ghetto and the French urban periphery, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 17, pp. 366—383.
32.
Wellman, B. (1992) Which type of ties and networks provide what kind of support?, Advances in Group Processes, 9, pp. 207—235.
33.
Wilson, W.J. (1987) The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
