A Bibliometric Analysis of Neighborhood Sense of Community

Abstract

The literature on neighborhood sense of community (NSOC) has undergone a period of rapid growth in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to explore the current state of knowledge on NSOC by mapping the knowledge domain and identifying the development trends of this field. A total of 1214 articles that were obtained from the Web of Science core collection between the years 1986 and 2022 served as the data sample, and Citespace was used as the tool for bibliometric analysis and visualization for this study. The results indicated: (1) NSOC research continued to attract the attention of scholars in recent years; (2) NSOC research covered a wide range of subject categories, including urban studies, public health, environmental studies, social work, and urban planning; (3) the Journal of Community Psychology appears to be among the most influential journals, with the greatest infiltration in NSOC research; (4) the collaboration networks of authors and institutions need to be strengthened, and the USA is the country that had the most publications and the strongest influence; (5) the knowledge framework was mainly based around 10 clusters, including place attachment; social life; urban form; community organization; exploring adolescents’ sense; psychological sense; cultural capital; Perth, Western Australia; mental well-being; and neighborhood planning. The scope of existing NSOC research covers a wide range of subject areas, including the concepts of NSOC, the measurement scales of NSOC, the impact of the neighborhood built environment on NSOC, the meditating role of NSOC between the built environment and residents’ mental health and subjective well-being, and the relationship between NSOC and other social factors. NSOC research in rural areas, NSOC research of immigration populations, NSOC research in the context of smart communities and cites, and the relationship between NSOC and health will be the focuses in future studies.