When Are Neighbourhoods Communities? Community in Dutch Neighbourhoods

This study investigates the degree to which community can be found in Dutch neighbourhoods and attempts to explain why there is more community in some neighbour than in others. We apply a perspective on community which assumes that people create communities with the expectation to realize some impor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European sociological review 2007-02, Vol.23 (1), p.99-114
Main Authors: Völker, Beate, Flap, Henk, Lindenberg, Siegwart
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communities
Community
Community associations
Community Development
Community power
Community relations
Community Satisfaction
Community structure
Cultural dependence
Economic interdependence
Interpersonal Relations
Neighborhoods
Neighbourhoods
Netherlands
Online communities
Parochialism
Residents
Retirement communities
Social capital
Social Integration
Social integration. Social relations. Social participation
Social networks
Social organization. Social system. Social structure
Social theory
Sociological theory
Sociology
Well-being
Wellbeing
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Summary:This study investigates the degree to which community can be found in Dutch neighbourhoods and attempts to explain why there is more community in some neighbour than in others. We apply a perspective on community which assumes that people create communities with the expectation to realize some important well-being goals. Conditions that account for the creation of a local community are specified, i.e. the opportunity, ease, and motivation to do so. These conditions are realized when (i) neighbourhoods have more meeting places; (ii) neighbours are, given their resources and interests, motivated to invest in local relationships; (iii) neighbours have few relations outside of the neighbourhood, and (iv) neighbours are mutually interdependent. Data from the Survey of Social Networks of the Dutch on 1,007 respondents in 168 neighbourhoods are used. Results show that there is a sizeable amount of community in Dutch neighbourhoods and that all the four conditions contribute to the explanation, while interdependencies among neighbours have the strongest impact on the creation of community.
ISSN:0266-7215
1468-2672
DOI:10.1093/esr/jcl022