Our Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership, with its focus on inequality and socio-spatial exclusion, seeks to address three major topics.

#1:  Neighbourhood Restructuring Trends and Processes

#2:  Consequences of Socio-spatial Inequality and Polarization

Question #1: Neighbourhood Restructuring Trends and Processes

• What changes have occurred in Canadian urban neighbourhoods in the last 40 years.
• What are the differences between neighbourhoods within specific cities and between cities?
• How do we explain neighbourhood changes and trends, and the similarities and differences within and between CMAs?
• What is the extent and spatial distribution of economic inequality, ethno-cultural differentiation, and concentration of characteristics such as Aboriginal identity, youth, ethnicity, immigration status, and poverty in different areas?
• What are the similarities and differences among the CMAs with respect to changes in the socio-economic character and ethno-cultural composition of their neighbourhoods?
• What variables are specific to Canadian urban neighbourhood change?
• Which neighbourhoods can yield a deeper understanding of these phenomena?
• How does increasing neighbourhood inequality observed in Toronto, and presumably other Canadian cities, compare with inequalities in the cities of other nations?
• Why has Canada, which is similar in many ways to the other Western nations, not (yet) experienced urban riots, anti-immigrant backlash, rising crime levels, severely deteriorated neighbourhoods, and the like?  

 

Question #2: Consequences of Socio-spatial Inequality and Polarization

• How do neighbourhood changes in Canada’s large cities affect people’s life chances, educational outcomes, employment opportunities, mobility, access to resources, and social attitudes?
• What are the consequences of neighbourhood trends for issues such as immigrant settlement, urban schooling, youth involvement in the criminal justice system, the well-being of Aboriginal people, and the development of age-friendly neighbourhoods?
• What impacts have interventions at the neighbourhood level had on these trends?
• What factors promote resilience among residents and neighbourhoods? What examples of community intervention have yielded positive results?

 

Question #3: Implications for Policies and Programs

•  What neighbourhood-level interventions are most effective in mitigating the effects of socio-spatial inequalities?
• How can we ensure that youth, newcomers, low-income households, ethno-cultural minorities, Aboriginal people, and the elderly are successfully included in the mainstream of society?
• How do policies and programs in housing, education, immigration, criminal justice, and income security moderate or exacerbate the impacts of socio-spatial inequality?
• What roles can different levels of government, NGOs, and the private sector play in reducing inequalities?
• How can we develop support for public policy measures to reduce inequality?