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Contested Boundaries: Explaining Where Ethnoracial Diversity Provokes Neighborhood Conflict
AJS; American Journal of Sociology
|June 7, 2018
Summary
Neighborhood conflict is more likely in ethnically diverse areas with poorly defined boundaries. Fuzzy boundaries, or transitional zones, between groups see more disputes than clear borders, according to NYC data.
Area of Science:
- Urban Sociology
- Spatial Analysis
- Ethnic Studies
Background:
- Scholarly and public concern exists regarding neighborhood erosion and conflict in ethnically diverse settings.
- Empirical evidence on the relationship between ethnic diversity and neighborhood conflict remains inconclusive.
- Existing research often treats neighborhoods as isolated areas, overlooking broader sociospatial structures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose and test the contested boundaries hypothesis, explaining neighborhood conflict based on the definition of boundaries between ethnic and racial groups.
- To investigate whether poorly defined (fuzzy) boundaries are associated with increased neighborhood conflict.
- To offer a refined contextual explanation for neighborhood conflict in diverse settings.
Main Methods:
- Utilized edge detection algorithms from computer vision and image processing to identify neighborhood boundaries.
- Analyzed 4.7 million time- and geo-coded 311 service requests from New York City.
- Quantified the frequency of neighbor complaints at different types of boundaries (fuzzy vs. crisp).
Main Results:
- Neighborhood conflict, indicated by service requests for noise, public drinking, or blocked driveways, is more frequent at fuzzy boundaries.
- Fuzzy boundaries, defined as interstitial or transitional areas between homogeneous communities, show higher rates of reported disputes.
- The findings support the hypothesis that poorly defined ethnic and racial boundaries are linked to increased neighborhood conflict.
Conclusions:
- The contested boundaries hypothesis provides a robust explanation for neighborhood conflict in diverse areas.
- Focusing on sociospatial structures and boundary definitions enhances our understanding of ethnic diversity's impact on neighborhoods.
- This research moves beyond aspatial neighborhood treatments to incorporate spatial context in conflict studies.
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