The Dialectic of Neighborhood Social Mix: Editors' Introduction to the Special Issue

We review the longstanding dialectic that has characterized theorizing, evidence-gathering, and policy-making in the realm of neighborhood social mix, take stock of where the debate now stands, and offer suggestions of where next steps in scholarship might be most fruitful. The preponderance of plausibly causal evidence from Europe and North America indicates that disadvantaged individuals are (1) harmed by the presence of sizable disadvantaged groups concentrated in their neighborhood and (2) helped by the presence of more advantaged groups in their neighborhood, probably due to positive role modeling, stronger collective control over disorder, and violence and elimination of geographic stigma, not cross-class social ties. Thus, there is a sufficient evidentiary base to justify the goal of social mix on grounds of improving the absolute well-being of the disadvantaged. This goal should be achieved by voluntary, gradualist, housing option-enhancing strategies that over the longer term expand opportunities for lower income families to live in communities with households of greater economic means. We advocate for these approaches because they impose fewer hardships on the disadvantaged and, hopefully, are also more effective over time.