William Clark's book examines the dynamic relationship between space and society through the lens of ‘neighbourhood’. It explores the places where we live and work and how these spaces can foster community. Drawing on diverse disciplines such as social psychology, anthropology, sociology, demography, and geography, Clark investigates the development of communities and the social processes that shape them. By studying socio-spatial units, the author demonstrates how the concept of ‘neighbourhood’ can be used to understand the complex interplay between spatial and social processes and transitions. Moreover, the book highlights the role of community initiatives in transforming localities and advancing societal goals.
A full-fledged city is too complex to study the relationships of space and society. A neighbourhood is a smaller, more manageable unit – the area we can readily access and experience. Its scale allows for community ties among residents, fostering neighbourly relationships through casual interactions and acquaintances. A neighbourhood can also be substantial enough to enable its inhabitants to collectively influence their surroundings, particularly when they share common interests and concerns. The socio-political weight of a neighbourhood can even make it possible for its community to influence urban politics.
The book is divided into three parts, comprising nine chapters. The first part explores the role of neighbourhoods in urban development and the formation of urban structures. A neighbourhood--as a socio-spatial unit--is often uncertain and rapidly changing, although there are exceptions. The author mentions Beverly Hills, while the old towns of European cities come to mind for the reader in Eastern Europe. But if neighbourhoods are so variable, how can we describe them in all their complexity and diversity? How can we consider gentrification as the planned transformation of neighbourhoods for urban policy purposes and ideals? While the term ‘gentrification’ may be new to the Eastern European reader, the practice is quite familiar from history. The urban policies of the oppressive regimes aimed to dismantle traditional neighbourhoods and communities and to create new communities in ‘socialist cities’ (by the way, with little success).
In the second part of the book, the author discusses the relationship between the individual and their neighbourhood. A familiar and reasonably known example is searching for a new home. What motivates our choices when looking for a new place to live? It is a sensitive question, although, from the perspective of Eastern Europe, the primary motivation is often the housing shortage. Where there is a housing shortage – either natural or economic (new housing is available but unaffordable) – this constraint overrides other motivating factors. When housing conditions are acceptable and the housing market is functioning, other social factors come into play. Other factors include the social preference of individuals for certain types of neighbourhoods. (This is a classic question in urban sociology. Clark repeatedly refers to Park's 1924 social distance theory, developed by the Chicago School of Urban Studies, where ‘distance’ refers to social and spatial separation.) Even more intriguing is the theory and research of neighbourhood change, particularly the social uplift of neighbourhoods and processes of stagnation or decline, which are linked to residents' financial situation and age composition. Typically, youthful neighbourhoods rise as young people's socioeconomic status improves, while ageing neighbourhoods stagnate or decline.
In the third part, the author examines the impact of neighbourhood changes on the city of which it is a part. How does city change affect those who live in the neighbourhoods? The author considers the factors contributing to or detracting from our sense of well-being in a neighbourhood. ‘Well-being’ is not a social science concept, rather a psychological one (if psychologists use such a term). Nevertheless, well-being is heavily dependent on the neighbourhood in which we live. (For example, buildings' size and height influence our well-being.) The author provides an extensive list of factors determining the well-being of those living in a neighbourhood. All this is reflected in the demographic movements of the neighbourhood–immigration and emigration–linked to the permanence mentioned above, and age-related changes. However, other previously unknown changes are happening so rapidly that researchers have not yet had time to observe their effects. Digitalisation is the most well-known of these changes. It requires us to re-examine everything we previously knew about neighbourhood change: the effects of commuting, the depopulation of rural areas, access to services, and cultural consumption. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on various environments. The pandemic years have shown the real impact of digitalisation. It has become clear that remote areas can also be habitable, but it has become apparent how isolation under pandemics undermines the neighbourhood community.
The captivating closing chapter deals with the ideas of ‘Just City’ and ‘Just Neighbourhood’. The Just City doesn't exist—at least not in the sense that it could be visited in reality. However, it exists in the minds, conversations, and endeavours of those who want to renew the city, the neighbourhood and the region they feel as their own—and those who can and must renew it. The Just City and the Just Neighbourhood belong to us like the ideals we strive for.
The Eastern European reader has again an opportunity to learn something from their Western colleagues, something they didn't know before. It would have been good if they had known the concept of Just City (and Just Neighbourhood) to use the same terminology as their Western colleagues.
We also have a ‘Just City’, even if we don't call it so. When we think about urban development, we demand the protection of green spaces, fight for water storage and drainage, and take steps toward a ‘Just City’. A ‘Just City’—a fair, equitable, and sustainable city— is a dream, a vision that we can strive for and that can only be realised if we all do our part.
Must the whole (the city) be changed to change its part (a neighbourhood)? Or—if changing the city is impossible—should we change a part of it, the neighbourhood? And who can change the neighbourhood or the whole town? Changing the city requires more resources and greater power. Those at the top of the social hierarchy have that power. Changing a neighbourhood involves the power of a community. A city's transformation comes from above; it is a top-down process. On the other hand, the transformation of a neighbourhood is a community intention, a grass-roots process that comes from below.
We in Eastern Europe have already experienced the forced creation of the so-called ‘socialist cities’ and the destruction of traditional rural areas. Transforming cities in this part of Europe is therefore not fashionable; civic movements here are not striving for that. Instead, they are focusing more on transforming or preserving neighbourhoods. Preserving a neighbourhood is important because it means having a local shop, pub, bus stop, and especially, a school. The school is simultaneously part of a bureaucratic hierarchy (the educational system) and the neighbourhood's institutional network. The presence of a school in a neighbourhood means that the state legitimises that neighbourhood. At the same time, the school is also part of the local community, visited daily by civilians (parents), where they can try to assert their interests against the state education system. Therefore, in Eastern Europe, the ‘Just School’ dominates over the ‘Just Neighbourhood’. Here, a just, fair, and sustainable neighbourhood cannot exist without a school registered by the state and influenced by the community.
William Clark is a world-wise scholar. His vast horizon is reflected in the bibliography of the book. The referred literature is listed in the chapters’ endnotes, and there is an impressive list of references at the end of the volume. In addition, eight tables and 38 figures enrich the author's message: the central role of the ‘neighbourhood’ in urban studies. In the Preface, the author, stepping out of his scholarly role, reveals the motivation behind his book: the fact that his children have moved out of the family home. Why were they moving there, he asked, and then he began investigating the neighbourhoods his grown-up children had chosen. Scholarly interest and personal commitment – that's what makes this book so impressive. That's why I like it, and that's why I recommend it to anyone curious about and engaged with the neighbourhood they live.
