Redefining neighborhoods using common destinations: social characteristics of activity spaces and home census tracts compared.

ABSTRACT: Research on neighborhood effects has focused largely on residential neighborhoods, but people are exposed to many other places in the course of their daily lives-at school, at work, when shopping, and so on. Thus, studies of residential neighborhoods consider only a subset of the social-spatial environment affecting individuals. In this article, we examine the characteristics of adults' "activity spaces"-spaces defined by locations that individuals visit regularly-in Los Angeles County, California. Using geographic information system (GIS) methods, we define activity spaces in two ways and estimate their socioeconomic characteristics. Our research has two goals. First, we determine whether residential neighborhoods represent the social conditions to which adults are exposed in the course o

SUBMITTER: Jones M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4048777 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature