Neighborhood Change and Urban Policy

Abstract

Theories of neighborhood change have concentrated on explaining the process within one disciplinary paradigm despite repeated calls for a model with a multidisciplinary perspective. Consequently, policies to stabilize neighborhoods tend to be theoretically myopic with respect to their recommended course of action. This article provides a synthetic model of neighborhood change based on three major schools of neighborhood change: ecological, subcultural, and political economy. In addition, it provides a discussion of policy implications of each perspective including the synthetic model outlined in this paper