Neighbourhood change and neighbour complaints: How gentrification and densification influence the prevalence of problems between neighbours

Abstract

As people who live in closest proximity to us, the conduct of neighbours can have an impact upon our lives, even if they are relative strangers. While previous research has generally examined the positive effects of good neighbour interactions, neighbours can also be a source of nuisance, conflict and distress. In the advent of socio-structural processes of urban policy and change – such as gentrification and densification – the taken-for-granted conventions that once regulated neighbour interactions are being eroded, potentially leading to greater levels of neighbour problems and complaints. In this paper, we apply a latent modelling approach to identify subgroups of neighbourhoods based on their profiles of neighbour problems and to assess whether these subgroups are characterised by the degree of social change in the neighbourhood towards the dual processes of gentrification and densification. The findings show that high intensity problems are associated with both processes, but that class factors of gentrification are more influential than density in accounting for neighbour tensions.