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Although residential sorting along socio-economic lines has increased in many cities across Europe, few studies have examined what drives changes in segregation over time. This study looks at the role of school choice expansion in shaping patterns of spatial inequality. We adopt a longitudinal perspective and investigate how the increasing availability of private primary schools is related to the dynamics of socio-economic segregation in German cities. Drawing on a uniquely compiled data set for the years 2005 to 2014 that includes 74 large and medium-sized cities with over 3500 districts, we estimate linear panel regression models with city fixed effects. The analyses show that an increase in the share of private primary schools is associated with a decrease in the segregation of poverty in West German cities but not in East German ones. The association in West Germany is particularly pronounced in local contexts characterised by growing rates of poor residents and growing proportions of young children. Results imply that school choice availability may promote residential integration and at the same time reinforce school segregation.

Purpose International attention is increasingly turning to the challenge of creating age-friendly environments. This study aims to examine the application of asset-based approaches in undertaking community development projects with older people. The paper intends to share the learning that may be useful when designing community development projects for older people in the future. Design/methodology/approach This study followed a multiple project case study design, with a focus on project delivery practices. It was undertaken as a co-production exercise involving university researchers and trained older volunteer community researchers (CRs). Over 18–24 months of qualitative research was conducted in relation to six area-based urban projects between 2018 and 2020. Findings There were five leading themes as follows: mapping and building on assets in highly localised settings; creating governance and direction through steering groups; developing activities with diverse groups of older people; reaching isolated and lonely older people; building local capacity to embed sustainability. Practical implications The effectiveness of assets-based approaches in promoting age-friendly agendas appears to be contingent on the values, skills, capacity and resourcing of delivery agencies, alongside wider public sector investment in communities. Diversity and inequalities amongst older people need to be taken into account and community development that specifically focuses on older people needs to be balanced with the whole population and intergenerational practice. Originality/value This paper provides an empirical account of the practical application of assets practices specifically in the context of the age-friendly community agenda. The co-production method brings together insights from academic and volunteer older CRs.

Neighbourhoods form the basic elements in residential areas in settlements, as they are the place where main and most essential services exist to serve the residents settled in form of families or individuals. Theories and housing planning practices based the determination of size of neighbourhoods on many factors; size and composition of population with their proportion to land are the main ones. The basic services are the outcomes of those factors; all services are restricted to the number and type of users with the ability to reach those services by walking within recommended distances. Primary schools are the most determinant and sensitive one due to user delicate age group. Iraqi optimum size of neighbourhoods in housing standards issued in 1980’s had been derived from specific number of population dependent on family compositions; after more than 30 years of noticeable demographic change, a clear need is emphasized to readjust those figures due to family and population changes that will re-establish the optimum size of our neighbourhood. The method of current study is based on focusing on current and near future population changes especially for those age groups determining the optimum size of primary schools composing the nuclei of the neighbourhood. This technique will guarantee the best synchronization between resident’s needs linked to proposing optimum neighbourhood sizes dependent on school sizes especially primary level, at the same dwelling re-subdivision worked as a counter force to decreased portion of age groups enrolling schools. The study achieved optimum sizes of neighbourhoods for the next 10 - 25 years determined by primary schools based on new demographic indicators..

The study explores how mothers in Iceland, a relatively new nation state that is perceived as being gender equal, classless and homogeneous, adapt and respond to international trends of consumer cultures. Building on studies about parental neighbourhood choice, parental practices and reproduction of social class, the study’s aim is to examine the local manifestations of those in an international context. To reach this aim, nine interviews with middle-class mothers who live in either disadvantaged or privileged neighbourhoods in terms of income, education level and ethnicity were analysed. Our findings on middle-class anxiety over class reproduction being mediated by neighbourhood and school choice are in accord with international literature. Our findings depart from the literature in the way that social capital reproduction plays out in the most affluent neighbourhood and the importance the most affluent middle-class mothers put on geographical closeness to their extended families., Icelandic Centre for Research [184857-052]

Background: Effective place-based interventions for childhood obesity call for the recognition of the high-risk neighbourhoods and an understanding of the determinants present locally. However, such an approach is uncommon. In this study, we identified neighbourhoods with elevated prevalence of childhood obesity (‘hotspots’) in the Porto Metropolitan Area and investigated to what extent the socio-economic and built environment characteristics of the neighbourhoods explained such hotspots. Methods: We used data on 5203 7-year-old children from a population-based birth cohort, Generation XXI. To identify hotspots, we estimated local obesity odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) using generalized additive models with a non-parametric smooth for location. Measures of the socio-economic and built environment were determined using a Geographic Information System. Associations between obesity and neighbourhood characteristics were expressed as OR and 95%CI after accounting for individual-level variables. Results: At 7 years of age, 803 (15.4%) children were obese. The prevalence of obesity varied across neighbourhoods and two hotspots were identified, partially explained by individual-level variables. Adjustment for neighbourhood characteristics attenuated the ORs and further explained the geographic variation. This model revealed an association between neighbourhood socio-economic deprivation score and obesity (OR = 1.014, 95%CI 1.004–1.025), as well as with the presence of fast-food restaurants at a walkable distance from the residence (OR = 1.37, 1.06–1.77). Conclusions: In our geographic area it was possible to identify neighbourhoods with elevated prevalence of childhood obesity and to suggest that targeting such high-priority neighbourhoods and their environmental characteristics may help reduce childhood obesity. This study was funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Internationalization and national funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology–FCT (Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education) under the Unidade de Investigação em Epidemiologia-Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (EPIUnit) (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006862; Ref. UID/DTP/04750/2013) and under the scope of the projects ‘EXALAR 21—The influence of exposure to urban air pollutants, green and blue spaces, and biodiversity on the development of allergic diseases and asthma in children: a life-course and eco-social approach’ (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030193—PTDC/GES-AMB/30193/2017), ‘Pathways from early life to cardiometabolic risk during childhood’ (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016837 - PTDC/DTP-EPI/3306/2014) and ‘How childhood social adversity shapes health: The biology of social adversity. ‘(POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016838 - PTDC/DTP-EPI/1687/2014). G21 was funded by Programa Operacional de Saúde – Saúde XXI, Quadro Comunitário de Apoio III and Administração Regional de Saúde Norte (Regional Department of Ministry of Health). It has also support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. V.M.V. was supported by the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH) under grant number P42 ES007381. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of NIH. A.C.S. was supported by the FCT Investigator contract IF/01060/2015.

Para conocer la salud de la población es necesario realizar un análisis conjunto y continuado de su estado de salud y de sus determinantes. El objetivo de esta nota de campo es describir el desarrollo y el funcionamiento de la herramienta Infobarris, que permite visualizar una amplia batería de indicadores y determinantes de la salud de la población de la ciudad de Barcelona según el barrio de residencia. Para el desarrollo de Infobarris se ha usado una metodología ágil que permite el desarrollo de un proyecto de forma iterativa e incremental en etapas: selección de indicadores, diseño del prototipo, desarrollo de la herramienta de visualización, carga de datos, revisión y mejora de la herramienta. Infobarris permite la visualización interactiva de 64 indicadores de salud y de sus determinantes, mediante gráficos, mapas y tablas, lo que facilita la vigilancia de la salud y de sus determinantes en los barrios de la ciudad de Barcelona. In order to know about the health of the population, it is necessary to perform a systematic and continuous analysis of their health status and social and economic health determinants. The objective of this paper is to describe the development and implementation of the Infobarris tool, which allows to visualize a wide battery of indicators and social determinants of health by neighbourhoods in the city of Barcelona (Spain). For the development of the Infobarris tool, we used an agile methodology that allows the development of a project in iterative and incremental stages, which are the following: selection of indicators, design of the prototype, development of the tool, data loading, and tool review and improvements. Infobarris displays 64 indicators of health and its determinants through graphics, maps and tables, in a friendly, interactive and attractive way, which facilitates health surveillance in the neighbourhoods of Barcelona.

This study aims to understand how children perceive their environment, exploring the affordances children perceive to influence their physical activity (PA) behaviour when outside. Participants included boys and girls aged 10–12 years (n = 15) living in Scotland. Children's visual and verbal representations of their perceived environment were analysed to assess environmental determinants of PA. The findings suggested that physical affordances that offer a sense of risk were important to children's play spaces. Social affordances influenced where the children went in their environment and the features they utilised as part of play behaviour; strangers were considered threatening depending on whether the activity was recognised.

Older persons are vulnerable to the ill effects of their social and built environment due to age-related limitations in mobility and bio-psychological vulnerability. Falls are common in older adults and result from complex interactions between individual, social, and contextual determinants. We addressed two methodological issues of neighbourhood-health and social epidemiological studies in this analysis: (1) validity of measures of neighbourhood contexts, and (2) structural confounding resulting from social sorting mechanisms. Baseline data from International Mobility in Aging Study were used. Samples included community-dwelling Canadians older than 65 living in Kingston (Ontario) and St-Hyacinthe (Quebec). We performed factor analysis and ecometric analysis to assess the validity of measures of neighbourhood social capital, socioeconomic status, and the built environment and stratified tabular analyses to explore structural confounding. The scales all demonstrated good psychometric and ecometric properties. There was an evidence of the existence of structural confounding in this sample of Canadian older adults as some combinations of strata for the three neighbourhood measures had no population. This limits causal inference in studying relationships between neighbourhood factors and falls and should be taken into account in aetiological aging research., Highlights • Falls in older adults result from complex interactions between various determinants. • Structural confounding happens due to social sorting mechanisms. • We showed that the composite neighbourhood measures were valid. • The observed structural confounding limits causal inference in aging research.

Research on neighbourhood effects indicates that neighbourhood poverty is related to educational outcomes of youth, however, much less attention is spend on studying neighbourhood and school effects simultaneously. Because the demographic composition of both contexts likely overlaps to some extent, it is possible that the effect both contexts have is not independent of each other. Throughout the early teenage years the neighbourhood and school contexts can vary, advocating for a life-course approach, including how the timing and duration of exposure to either contexts affect educational achievement. Using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth cohort (N=4,502), we employed cross-classified multilevel models to examine the timing and duration of exposure to poverty in neighbourhood and school contexts between ages 10 and 16, to predict educational achievement of adolescents at age 16. Our results indicate that neighbourhood poverty impacts on educational achievement, independent of school poverty. Furthermore, we found that for neighbourhood poverty, especially enduring exposure impacts on educational achievement, while the timing of exposure does not play a role. However, for school poverty, both timing and duration play a role: longer exposure is related to lower achievement, but also exposure at an earlier age has a stronger impact than exposure at a later age. Finally, the lowest educational achievement was observed in adolescents who were exposed to poverty in both contexts for the full observation period. In sum, our analyses indicate that, when studying contextual disadvantage, it is crucial to consider how variations over time in different contexts might be related and how they might influence the study.

The study calculates the probability of success at the centralized university entrance examinations for applicants from different districts of the capital city of Georgia, Tbilisi. Through linear regression, binary logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression analyses of a government-collected census database of 10,000 entrants, the study examines the extent to which residential or school location, gender, school type or age of the applicants impact their probability of success. Because their scores at the exam determine their admission and the value of the study voucher that they receive, by uncovering major differences in the chances of success among applicants from different socioeconomic, educational and cultural backgrounds, the study brings our attention to the possible efficiency- and equity-related threats of merit-based vouchers and centralized merit-based entrance examinations. A 3-stage analysis reveals a clear divide between the Western and Eastern parts of the capital city in terms of its affluence, average per-student school funding and outcomes at the exams. Students from the West, females, younger applicants and private school graduates have considerably higher scores and probability of success in obtaining vouchers. For example, linear regression analysis revealed that when keeping school status, gender and age category constant, applicants from the Western schools score 3.8 out of 80 points higher in the General Abilities Test. According to the results of logistic regression analysis, when keeping age category, gender and the status of the school constant, those studying in the West part of the city are 1.68 times more likely to obtain a voucher than those from the East. When keeping age category constant, female applicants from Western private schools have a 48% chance of obtaining a voucher while the probability of male applicants from Eastern public schools is almost 3 times lower – 17%. The study also suggests that the school location of the applicant has a slightly larger influence on outcomes than their residential origin.

International audience; This paper investigates the social endogenous effect linking the employment probability of young workers entering the labour market to the local employment rate. We focus on the transition from school to work, using a representative sample of youths leaving the French educational system in 1998 and 2004. We identify the causal effect of local employment rate using a neighbourhood fixed-effect strategy (Bayer et al, 2007).We provide evidence that the within-neighbourhood random allocation assumption is likely to hold. The results show that an individual’s own employment is strongly affected by the share of working people in their neighbourhood, estimates being higher for high-school dropouts. Results also reveal gender differences, suggesting that young people are more sensitive to same-sex neighbours.

Despite evidence suggesting that social and neighbourhood contexts may relate to sleep in adults, the underlying social and demographic mechanisms involved remain relatively unexplored. This study proposes a conceptual framework for examining the link between social environments and restless sleep, and assesses whether associations among restless sleep, social capital, and neighbourhood environments differ by gender. Data come from the 2008 Montreal Neighborhood Networks and Healthy Aging Study (n = 2707). Participants self-reported restless sleep. Network and cognitive dimensions of social capital were examined. Neighbourhood disadvantage and population density were measured using 2006 Canada Census data. Multilevel logistic analyses adjusting for socio-economic and -demographic variables were used to estimate associations among study variables. The final sample size for this study was 2643 adults (nmen = 930; nwomen = 1713). Women were more likely to experience restless sleep than men (OR: 1.29; 95% CIs: 1.07, 1.55). Network capital increased the likelihood of restless sleep in men (OR = 1.25; 95% CI: 1.04-1.50) but not women. High generalized trust decreased the odds of restless sleep in women (OR = 0.75; 95% CI: 0.59-0.94); neighbourhood disadvantage increased the odds of restless sleep in women but not men (OR = 1.18; 95% CI: 1.01-1.38). The association among restless sleep, social capital, and neighbourhood environmental factors differed in male and female Montreal adults. This study contributes to a greater understanding of possible differential associations between social environments and health in men and women. Greater knowledge of the social and environmental factors that contribute to poor sleep in men and women can aid in the design of interventions to improve sleep patterns in the general population. Social and health promotion interventions might aim to improve general neighbourhood environmental conditions to improve the sleep health of women.

Ethnic segregation, in both neighbourhoods and schools, is an issue regularly raised in the British media, usually associated with arguments that it is growing and generating an increasingly-divided society. Segregation in schools is often presented as particularly problematic, and as greater than neighbourhood segregation – with the implication that a combination of parental choice and Local Education Authority admissions criteria are responsible for that heightened segregation. The validity of such claims is evaluated here for English primary schools using data from the National Pupil Database. Analyses show that for the great majority of schools the proportion of their pupils from South Asian or Black minorities is commensurate with the proportion in their model-defined catchment areas. The main exceptions to this are a relatively small number of Voluntary Aided schools, most with a religious foundation, that can apply faith-based criteria in their admissions policies and tend to draw pupils from wider areas than Community schools lacking that flexibility. A case study of flows in one local authority sustains this general argument – that any greater segregation of schools than neighbourhoods in England reflects the different age profiles of White and non-White populations and is not the result of ethnically-biased schools admissions procedures. La ségrégation ethnique, tant dans les quartiers qu'en milieu scolaire, est périodiquement évoquée dans les médias britanniques qui observent le plus souvent qu'il s'agit d'un phénomène en expansion qui engendre une société de plus en plus clivée. La ségrégation à l'école est souvent présentée comme spécialement problématique et plus importante que celle des quartiers, en d'autres termes que son augmentation serait le résultat d'une combinaison des critères parentaux et de ceux de l'autorité locale en charge de l'enseignement. Dans cet article nous testons la validité de telles affirmations pour les écoles primaires anglaises sur base des données nationales. Des analyses montrent que pour la grande majorité des écoles, la proportion d'élèves venant d'Asie du Sud ou issus des minorités noires est en adéquation avec leur part dans les zones de recrutement définies par le modèle. Les principales exceptions que nous avons trouvées viennent d'un nombre relativement faible d'écoles subventionnées, pour la plupart des écoles confessionnelles qui ont les moyens d'appliquer des critères basés sur la foi dans leurs politiques d'admission et tendent à attirer les élèves de zones plus étendues que les écoles communautaires auxquelles manque cette flexibilité. Une étude de cas sur les flux observés au niveau d'une autorité locale soutient l'argument général qu'en Angleterre toute ségrégation scolaire supérieure à une ségrégation résidentielle reflète les différents profils d'âge des populations blanches et non blanches, et ne résulte pas de procédures d'admission ethniquement biaisées.

This research is funded by the ESRC under the Understanding Population Trends and Processes (UPT AP) programme (Award Ref: RE S-163-25-0045). Although developed societies are becoming increasingly ethnically diverse, relatively little research has been conducted on geographies of mixed-ethnic unions (married or cohabiting). There is some recent evidence from the US that mixed-ethnic couples are more likely to be found in mixed-ethnic neighbourhoods, but this research is based on cross-sectional data. Therefore it is not possible to determine whether mixed-ethnic couples are more likely to form in mixed-ethnic neighbourhoods or whether they are more likely to move there. Our longitudinal analysis allows us to tease out the relative importance of these two processes, furthering our understanding of the formation of mixed-ethnic unions. Using data from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study we examine neighbourhood effects on the formation of mixed-ethnic unions in England and Wales. We find that mixed-ethnic unions are more likely to form in neighbourhoods with low concentrations of co-ethnic population. The results from this study lend support to the contact theory that geographical proximity to other ethnic groups enhances mutual understanding between people from different ethnic groups and could lead to the development of intimate partnerships. Postprint

ObjectiveTo examine whether neighbourhood characteristics are associated with cumulative biological risk (CBR) and sex differences in CBR in a nationally representative sample in Jamaica, a small island developing country with increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).DesignCross-sectional studySettingA population-based cross-sectional survey, the Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey 2008 (JHLS II) recruited persons at their homes over a 4 month period from all 14 parishes and 113 neighbourhoods defined as enumeration districts (EDs).Participants2544 persons aged 15–74 years old from the 2008 Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey (JHLS II), who completed interviewer-administered questionnaires and had biomarkers assessed, and whose home addresses could be reliably geocoded.Primary outcomeA summary measure CBR was created using seven markers—systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings, waist circumference, body mass index, total cholesterol, fasting blood glucose levels and self-reported asthma. Weighted multilevel models examined clustering, using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), of CBR across neighbourhoods and the impact of neighbourhood characteristics (recreational space availability and neighbourhood disorder) on CBR.ResultsWomen had significantly higher mean CBR scores than men across all age groups. There was significant clustering of CBR by ED, and among women versus men (ICC: F=6.9%, M=0.7%). Women living in more disordered neighbourhoods were 26% more likely to have high CBR as those in less disordered ones (aOR=1.26, 95% CI=1.08 to 1.47; pConclusionsPolicy-makers in Jamaica should pay greater attention to neighbourhood factors such as recreational space availability and neighbourhood disorder that may contribute to CBR in any effort to curtail the epidemic of NCDs.

This paper considers estimation of disease prevalence for small areas (neighbourhoods) when the available observations on prevalence are for an alternative partition of a region, such as service areas. Interpolation to neighbourhoods uses a kernel method extended to take account of two types of collateral information. The first is morbidity and service use data, such as hospital admissions, observed for neighbourhoods. Variations in morbidity and service use are expected to reflect prevalence. The second type of collateral information is ecological risk factors (e.g., pollution indices) that are expected to explain variability in prevalence in service areas, but are typically observed only for neighbourhoods. An application involves estimating neighbourhood asthma prevalence in a London health region involving 562 neighbourhoods and 189 service (primary care) areas.

Background Physical activity may reduce the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes; however, compared to non-pregnant women, a lower proportion of pregnant women meet the physical activity guidelines. Our objectives were to explore overall changes and ethnic differences in objectively recorded moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) during pregnancy and postpartum and to investigate the associations with objective and perceived access to recreational areas. Methods We analysed 1,467 person-observations from 709 women in a multi-ethnic population-based cohort, with MVPA data recorded with the SenseWear™ Pro3 Armband in early pregnancy (mean gestational week (GW) 15), mid-pregnancy (mean GW 28) and postpartum (mean postpartum week 14). MVPA was limited to bouts ≥10 min. Women were nested within 56 neighbourhoods defined by postal code area. We derived neighbourhood-level objective access to recreational areas (good vs limited) by geographic information systems. We collected information about perceived access (high vs low perception) to recreational areas in early pregnancy. We treated ethnicity, objective and perceived access as explanatory variables in separate models based on linear mixed effects regression analyses. Results Overall, MVPA dropped between early and mid-pregnancy, followed by an increase postpartum. Western women performed more MVPA than women in other ethnic groups across time points, but the differences increased postpartum. Women residing in neighbourhoods with good objective access to recreational areas accumulated on average nine additional MVPA minutes/day (p

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 615159 (ERC Consolidator Grant DEPRIVEDHOODS, socio-spatial inequality, deprived neighbourhoods and neighbourhood effects) and from the Marie Curie programme under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013)/Career Integration Grant no. PCIG10-GA-2011-303728 (CIG Grant NBHCHOICE, neighbourhood choice, neighbourhood sorting and neighbourhood effects). Selective mobility into and out of urban neighbourhoods is one of the main driving forces of segregation. Earlier research has found group differences in who wants to leave or who leaves certain types of neighbourhoods. A factor that has received little attention so far is that some residents will have a desire to leave their neighbourhood, but are unable to do so. If there are differences between population groups in the realisation of desires to leave the neighbourhood, this might lead to involuntary segregation. This paper uses a unique combination of register data and survey data. We combine data from a large housing survey in the Netherlands (WoON) with longitudinal register data from the Netherlands (SSD) which contains individual-level information on residential mobility histories. This allows us to study whether households with a desire to leave their neighbourhood do realise this desire and which households are successful in leaving which neighbourhoods. A more thorough insight in who wants to leave which neighbourhoods but is unable to do so will contribute to a better understanding of selective mobility and segregation. We find that ethnic minorities and low-income households are less likely to realise a desire to leave their neighbourhood. We expected that ethnic minorities would be especially unsuccessful in realising desires to leave minority concentration neighbourhoods; however, for none of the ethnic groups we found an effect of neighbourhood ethnic composition on the realisation of desires to leave. Publisher PDF

This paper studies drug offence at schools and their environment to explain why some but not all schools had drug offences. We used a geographical approach that integrated spatial data of crime, census, and the built environment to identify potential risk factors of drugs at schools. Based on all recorded drug offences at schools (2001-2008) in the region of York in Ontario, Canada, from the police, we geocoded the schools and analysed the associations between drugs at schools and their environment (i.e., neighbourhood characteristics of schools). Neighbourhood characteristics were represented by census socioeconomic variables (including unemployment, lone parent, residential instability, immigration, adults at home, education, and ethnic heterogeneity) and built environment variables (open space and housing type). The analyses were done using geographical information systems for geocoding and extraction of attributes that represent neighbourhood characteristics. Bayesian statistical methods with Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation were used to fit the logistic regression models adopted. One of the major findings was that drug offence at schools and lone parents in the school neighbourhoods is significantly associated. Our findings have the potential to contribute to relevant policy discussions in reducing drug activities at schools. Limitations of the study and further research are discussed.

The objective of this study was to analyse trends in socioeconomic inequalities in premature mortality in Barcelona from 1992 to 2011, accounting for population changes. We conducted a repeated cross-sectional study of the Barcelona population (25-64 years) using generalized linear mixed models for trend analysis, and found that socioeconomic inequalities in premature mortality persisted between neighbourhoods, but tended to diminish. However, the reduction in inequality was related to an increase in the number of foreign-born individuals mainly in socioeconomic disadvantaged neighbourhoods, in which the decrease in premature mortality was more marked. To study trends in geographical inequalities in mortality, it is essential to understand demographic changes occurred in different places related to local levels of deprivation. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We conducted a qualitative longitudinal study to explore how adult residents of disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods (Glasgow, UK) experienced neighbourhood demolition and relocation. Data from 23 households was collected in 2011 and 2012. Some participants described moves to new or improved homes in different neighbourhoods as beneficial to their and their families’ wellbeing. Others suggested that longstanding illnesses and problems with the new home and/or neighbourhood led to more negative experiences. Individual-level contextual differences, home and neighbourhood-level factors and variations in intervention implementation influence the experiences of residents involved in relocation programmes., Highlights • Housing-led urban regeneration can improve social determinants of health but can also be socially disruptive. • We found qualitative evidence of complex experiences during regeneration involving neighbourhood demolition and relocation. • Individual, household, home and neighbourhood characteristics influence residents’ positive and negative experiences. • Longstanding illness was a particular barrier to residents benefiting from improved residential environments.

How do children develop relationships? Do they meet children from socio-economic backgrounds other than their own? What are the effects of (much sought-after) social diversity among adults on the younger generation? This study of children’s social relations in a gentrified neighborhood in Paris sheds light on these questions., À quoi tient la sociabilité enfantine ? Le milieu détermine t il les fréquentations des plus jeunes ? Quels effets la diversité sociale (des adultes) tant recherchée produit elle sur les générations en formation ? Une enquête sur la sociabilité des enfants d'un quartier parisien gentrifié apporte de premiers éléments de réponse.

Background: In England, obesity is more common in some ethnic minority groups than in Whites. This study examines the relationship between ethnic concentration and access to fast food outlets, supermarkets and physical activity facilities.\ud \ud Methods: Data on ethnic concentration, fast food outlets, supermarkets and physical activity facilities were obtained at the lower super output area (LSOA) (population average of 1500). Poisson multilevel modelling was used to examine the association between own ethnic concentration and facilities, adjusted for area deprivation, urbanicity, population size and clustering of LSOAs within local authority areas.\ud \ud Results: There was a higher proportion of ethnic minorities residing in areas classified as most deprived. Fast food outlets and supermarkets were more common and outdoor physical activity facilities were less common in most than least deprived areas. A gradient was not observed for the relationship between indoor physical activity facilities and area deprivation quintiles. In contrast to White British, increasing ethnic minority concentration was associated with increasing rates of fast food outlets. Rate ratios comparing rates of fast food outlets in high with those in low level of ethnic concentration ranged between 1.28, 95% confidence interval 1.06-1.55 (Bangladeshi) and 2.62, 1.46-4.70 (Chinese). Similar to White British, however, increasing ethnic minority concentration was associated with increasing rate of supermarkets and indoor physical activity facilities. Outdoor physical activity facilities were less likely to be in high than low ethnic concentration areas for some minority groups.\ud \ud Conclusions: Overall, ethnic minority concentration was associated with a mixture of both advantages and disadvantages in the provision of food outlets and physical activity facilities. These issues might contribute to ethnic differences in food choices and engagement in physical activity.

Among the highly developed countries, demographic ageing is particularly advanced in Germany. Accentuated by migration, there is great regional variation in the progress of demographic change. Within urban areas, residential neighbourhoods differ considerably in their demographic composition and perspectives. Based on municipal data, this paper examines regional variability in the diversity and pace of neighbourhood-level ageing. Focusing on the Rhine-Ruhr conurbation in North Rhine-Westphalia, the analysis outlines at what pace ageing proceeds in a variety of neighbourhoods, which attract no constant influx of working-age migrants. After decades of suburbanisation, in the period from 1998 to 2008 regional migration concentrated on the central districts of large cities. More profoundly in the most prosperous cities growing in population than in other cities, childless working-age adults separate from other age groups and family types in selected central city quarters. The findings suggest that spatial differentials in ageing are likely to affect future location decisions and, thereby, regional and local prosperity.

There is an increasing interest in the unequal socio-spatial distribution of environmental 'goods' and 'bads' and the associated implications for geographical inequalities in health. Until recently, research in this area has focused on solitary environmental characteristics and has been hindered by the absence of geographically-specific measures that recognise the multifactorial nature of the physical environment. However, recent work in the United Kingdom has developed an area-level multivariate index of health-related physical environmental deprivation that captures both pathogenic and salutogenic environmental characteristics. Applications of this index have demonstrated that, at the national level, multiple environmental deprivation increased as the degree of income deprivation rose. Further, after adjusting for key confounders, there was a significant association between multiple environmental deprivation and the health outcomes of local residents. In the current study we tested the methods developed in the UK to create the New Zealand Multiple Environmental Deprivation Index (NZ-MEDIx) for small areas across the country (n = 1860). We considered whether socially disadvantaged places in New Zealand had higher levels of multiple environmental deprivation, and if environmental disadvantage exerted an influence on health after adjustment for key confounders such as socioeconomic status. We found that although neighbourhoods with higher levels of multiple environmental deprivation tended to have greater social disadvantage, this association was not linear. Further, multiple environmental deprivation tended to exert a modest effect on health that was independent of the age, sex and socioeconomic structure of the population. These findings demonstrate that it is possible to develop an index of multiple environmental deprivation in an alternative national context which has utility in epidemiological investigations.

Both educational attainment and school quality are typically lower in disadvantaged areas than others and much recent policy attention has been focused on each. This paper looks at the quality problem, exploring the relationships between disadvantaged contexts, what schools do, and the quality of schooling that they provide. The findings suggest that disadvantaged contexts impact on the organisation and processes of schools and that these effects differ significantly from one area to another, in ways that are not reflected by the usual indicators of disadvantage. School managers respond by adapting organisational design and processes. They are, however, constrained in these responses by the limited and short-life funding available, by the lack of evidence of good practice in specific contexts, and by lack of flexibility over major issues of organisation design and curriculum. Challenging contexts and the constraints on school responses together exert a downward pressure on quality. The paper argues that because school processes and quality are affected by context, school improvement in disadvantaged areas will not be achieved by generic measures, but only by policies tailored to disadvantaged areas and sensitive to differences between these areas. It suggests ways in which school improvement policies could be contextualised in order to raise quality in the poorest areas.

Current social dynamics have aggravated social inequalities in most European countries during the last two decades. The changes have accelerated differences in living conditions between groups in the cities and between neighbourhoods within cities. Along with increasing social polarization, there are clear signs of a spatial dimension to this process. The past gives clear indications that universal programmes and urban polices of regeneration have been unable to cope with the problem of polarization. Cities and national governments seem to be aware of this, as they have developed new ways of organizing urban policy. There are many similarities in the changes of urban policy from country to country, although no coordinating authority has influenced this. First, the new urban policy is organized differently: it now involves partners other than public authorities, often including (parts of) the population of the areas in question. There seems to be a shift from government to governance. The greater openness to the public is of decisive importance. Second, citizens have been invited into the process of urban improvements; empowerment labels attempt to generate social capital in marginalized neighbourhoods. Third, the new urban policy is being targeted to bounded areas. Fourth, a move from sectoral to more integrative policies can be discerned. And finally, at least in some countries, policies are taking the form of contracts or covenants. All of the above changes are made in order to maximize the efficiency of public policy. This paper discusses these now widely used aspects of urban policy. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the effort to broaden the sphere of stakeholders? What are the benefits of a shift from a universalist to targeted strategies and of a shift from sectoral to more integrative policies? What are the problems and consequences of the increasing use of governance?

Background There is ample evidence that residential neighbourhoods can influence mental well-being (MWB), with most studies relying on census or similar data to characterize communities. Few studies have actively investigated local residents’ perceptions. Methods Concept mapping was conducted with residents from five Toronto neighbourhoods representing low income and non-low income socio-economic groups. These residents participated in small groups and attended two sessions per neighbourhood. The first session (brainstorming) generated neighbourhood characteristics that residents felt influenced their MWB. A few weeks later, participants returned to sort these neighbourhood characteristics and rate their relative importance in affecting residents’ ‘good’ and ‘poor’ MWB. The data from the sorting and rating groups were analyzed to generate conceptual maps of neighbourhood characteristics that influence MWB. Results While agreement existed on factors influencing poor MWB (regardless of neighbourhood, income, gender and age), perceptions related to factors affecting good MWB were more varied. For example, women were more likely to rank physical beauty of their neighbourhood and range of services available as more important to good MWB, while men were more likely to cite free access to computers/internet and neighbourhood reputation as important. Low-income residents emphasized aesthetic attributes and public transportation as important to good MWB, while non-low-income residents rated crime, negative neighbourhood environment and social concerns as more important contributors to good MWB. Conclusion These findings contribute to the emerging literature on neighbourhoods and MWB, and inform urban planning in a Canadian context.