Formal and Informal Social Organization: Do Geography, Structural Inequality, and Other Forms of Social Organization Matter?

ABSTRACT

Neighborhood social organization is one way that neighborhoods matter for residents, as well as an intervention opportunity for macro practitioners. Neighborhood social organization encapsulates how neighborhoods differentially organize, both formally and informally. We tested whether neighborhood structural inequality, types of social organization, and spatial clustering were associated with both formal and informal neighborhood social organization. Formal and informal social organization were mutually reinforcing. Formal social organization, measured by organizational participation, predicted informal social organization. In multivariate spatial analysis, organizational participation was also influenced by adjacent neighborhoods. Practitioners should consider how adjacent neighborhoods could affect place-based interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Inequality
• neighborhoods
• social organization
• spatial statistical analysis

Acknowledgment

The Chicago Community Adult Health study was supported by funds from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P50HD38986 and R01HD050467). The authors would like to thank Miriam Landsman for comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.