Equality of Opportunity and the Importance of Place Summary of a Workshop (2002) / Chapter Skim
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4. Where Do We Go from Here?
4. Where Do We Go from Here?
Pages 52-63
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From page 52... ...
Identifying promising directions for research, ways to improve datasets and methodologies focused on measuring the effects of place, and policy options to improve the conditions of inner-city neighborhoods were the final goals of the workshop, and these issues were explored in the final session. George Galster focused on methodological challenges to conducting research on neighborhood effects, and Tim Smeeding discussed policy options that could be appropriate responses based on the current status of research.
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From page 53... ...
Such a framework is based on the premise that, in order to suggest the most promising directions for future research, one needs to comprehend in a holistic fashion all the factors that contribute to the outcome in question and the causal interrelationship among those factors. Specifically, Galster suggested using a model in which housing tenure, neighborhood, mobility expectations, and housing wealth are determined simultaneously.
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From page 54... ...
In this case the unobserved variables, such as parental characteristics, would affect not only neighborhood characteristics through the choice of neighborhood but also residents' savings behavior, their choice of home ownership, and their mobility expectations and behavior. Galster suggested that databases with a much richer set of characteristics relating to parenting style and the whole panoply of attitudes and behaviors that factor into the outcome in question could help to solve this challenge.
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From page 55... ...
The workshop discussion did not resolve the conflict as to whether a complete specification of factors affecting neighborhoods is needed in order to understand their effects on particular outcomes. Jargowsky and several other discussants addressed the issue of the advantages of various research methods for enhancing our understanding of the importance of neighborhoods and the mechanisms through which neighborhoods contribute to particular outcomes.
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From page 56... ...
Goering suggested that Galster's comprehensive model was not really necessary to answer questions related to the effects on neighborhoods of people who were at the bottom of the housing market and who would be unlikely to become homeowners. Goering also took issue with the importance of natural experiments in understanding the effects of neighborhoods.
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From page 57... ...
Susan Popkin discussed the role that large tracking studies could play in identifying mechanisms through which neighborhoods affect outcomes. She also described the use of qualitative research to help with decisions about the quantitative research that will help people decide what issues to explore when attempting to identify the causes of various effects.
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From page 58... ...
POLICY The discussion of future directions for policy focused primarily on the following points: many policies are linked to places, but the emphasis should be on policies for people; direction for policy makers given that it is not completely understood how neighborhood affects work; and knowledge of the problem is not the same as knowledge of how to create a solution. Tim Smeeding began the discussion of policy options with the difficult linkage between policies related to place and those that focus on people.
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From page 59... ...
Smeeding's second policy point was that increasing mobility is a powerful way to allow individuals living in areas of concentrated poverty to deal with their economic and social needs. As Claudia Coulton noted, more than any other factor, access to a car most positively affects job access.
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From page 60... ...
He continued by saying that if one believes fiscal capacity is related to the quantity and quality of services provided, and if one further believes that the quality of services provided is related to important individual outcomes, then one would want to know what the fiscal capacity is and how it varies among local governments. Knowing about fiscal policy is important because there are ways to provide funds that can equalize spending among jurisdictions and therefore offset the variations in fiscal capacity across local governments.
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From page 61... ...
One issue mentioned by several workshop speakers but not addressed in detail either in terms of research or policy implications was how racial discrimination interacts with other neighborhood mechanisms that affect the outcomes of individuals. At the beginning of this workshop summary, the increased concentration of low-income African Americans in central cities was considered, and Tim Smeeding discussed employment discrimination, housing discrimination, and mortgage discrimination, which are entangled with other problems of low-income neighborhoods.
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From page 62... ...
Second, incorporating contextual and governance issues, in addition to neighborhood characteristics, would lead to better problem definitions and improved research and policy approaches. Every neighborhood possesses a contextual set offactors (e.g., socioeconomic status, racial composition, employment opportunities, crime, access to public transportation)
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From page 63... ...
WHERE DO WE GO FROM MERE? 63 social dynamics of a community, and research and policy must bear this in mind.
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