Contextual Effects

Abstract

Social scientists since the original Chicago School researchers find that neighborhoods and other geographic areas exert effects on residents, both while they live in those areas and even long afterward. The context effects are net of the individuals composing them, meaning there are cumulative effects that cannot be explained by individual-level characteristics alone. Another way of describing this is to state that the sum is greater than its parts: neighborhoods and other geographic areas, such as counties, states, and nations, combine social resources in ways that can influence the kind of lives that people living in those areas have over time. Contextual effects have a long history in sociological studies, dating back at least to the early Chicago School, and affect several types of social outcomes, including economic, educational and developmental, health and psychological well-being, crime and delinquency, and community involvement. Future directions of contextual effects research will account for the objective and structural features of geographic areas, in conjunction with the subjective and perceptual aspects.