Seeing Like a Neighbor: Rethinking Neighborhoods as Service-oriented Communities

• Published in: Urban affairs review (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) Calif.), 2021-11, Vol.57 (6), p.1730-1758
• Main Authors: Halegoua, Germaine R., Johnson, Bonnie J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chronic illnesses; Community; Empowerment; Ethics; Measurement; Neighborhoods; Neighbors; Planners; Policy making; Political communication; Proximity; Residents; Sense of community; Social capital; Social services; Units of measurement; Urban planning
• ISSN: 1078-0874; 1552-8332
• DOI: 10.1177/1078087420924759

Neighborhoods remain primary units of measurement and empowerment among city planners, and governments ask neighborhood groups to take on more of the work of the “state.” Missing from these discussions of neighborhood expectations is how to effectively foster social capital and sense of community among neighbors and what it means to be a neighbor today. Through interviews with residents in a Lawrence, KS, neighborhood, we asked what makes an ideal neighbor. Findings show residents regard, or would like to regard, neighborhood as a service-oriented community built on informal, mutual aid rather than social, political, or consumer services–based models dominant in scholarly literature. However, participants voiced concern about how people can know when others need help if they do not know each other. We find that proximity, chance encounters, and informal communication are key and offer suggestions for revised roles of planners, policy makers, and researchers in neighborhood empowerment.