Between social isolation and opportunity-enriching environments: Assessing neighborhood effects on the socioeconomic integration of the populations of three shanty towns in Salvador, Brazil

ABSTRACT

We aim at assessing neighborhood effects on the socioeconomic integration of poor individuals living in three shanty towns of Salvador, Brazil. Grounded on semi-structured interviews, we demonstrate that the spatial proximity of Nordeste de Amaralina to affluent gated communities fosters the interviewees’ economic integration. However, mechanisms of social segmentation impede cross-class interactions. In the peripheral São João do Cabrito, the interviewees’ confinement to the local social context along with the absence of positive social references produce their social isolation and constrain their economic integration. Yet in the peripheral Fazenda Grande II/Jaguaripe I, the shared use of urban services by socially dissimilar groups provides an opportunity-enriching environment for the lower echelons. We discuss two mechanisms that account for neighborhood effects: changes in the support structures and the impact of crime. Concluding, we advocate for a multidimensional approach to neighborhood effects, capable of attending to the interrelatedness of micro, meso, and macro-social factors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Homophily refers to the principle that individuals tend to associate and bond with similar others along common characteristics, like age, gender, class, race, ethnicity, beliefs, values and education (Marques, 2016).

2. Following Marques (2016, p. 1073) considerations on social network analysis, we shall make a difference between the individuals’ social network structures itself, giving a static and descriptive picture of their relational patterns, and the mobilization of their social ties to cope with different situations of vulnerability.

3. In order to address this question, the interviewees were asked to associate their social contacts to the seven different spheres of sociability: family, friendship, neighbors, workplace, studies, religious associations, non-religious associations. Each respondent was asked to list up to a number of 10 persons for each sphere of sociability. Based on our results, we distinguished seven network typologies, which are: (1) “predominantly family and neighbors,” (2) “predominantly neighbors and family,” (3) “family, neighbors and friendship,” (4) “family, friendship and workplace” (5) “family, neighbors and religious associations,” (6) “family, neighbors and studies,” (7) “family, workplace and non-religious associations.”

4. In Figure 2 we used datasets from the 2010 decennial census, published by the Department of Urban Development of the State of Bahia (Companhia de Desenvolvimento Urbano do Estado da Bahia). Figure 3 is based on criminal records made available by the Department of Public Security of the State of Bahia for the year 2018.

5. For more details, please see the Methodological Instruments at the annex of this paper.

6. It needs to be stressed that the results obtained within this qualitative research are suggestive and not conclusive, since they are based on the interviewees’ subjective assessment on their patterns of sociability.

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Stephan Treuke

Stephan Treuke was awarded a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics and Geography by the Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany. He holds a PhD in Social Sciences, awarded by the Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil. He was a visiting scholar at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He is currently working at the Emschergenossenschaft and Lippe as a Project Manager. His main research fields are: urban poverty, segregation, neighborhood effects, and crime and its implications for urban policies.