No abstract

IntroductionThe mobility behaviour of individuals and households has widespread consequences for societies (Cadwallader, 1992). It has a profound influence on the demographic and socioeconomic composition of neighbourhoods and the changes therein, including processes of segregation of low-income households and immigrants or minority ethnic groups. A major issue of debate is whether such processes result from voluntary actionöwhereby people move or stay when and where they wantöor from differentiated constraints on moving ö whereby some people move freely and others remain trapped in less desirable housing or neighbourhoods. It is therefore relevant to understand why some people move without having intended to do so and others remain despite having an initial intention to change residence. Insight into the factors that hamper the execution of mobility intentions might set a direction for urban housing policy that is, at least in the Netherlands, directed at achieving a more equal distribution of lower income households over space (Bolt et al, 2008). Since Rossi's classical work Why Families Move (1955), several studies have been published concerning the discrepancy between stated intentions to move (or to stay) and subsequent mobility behaviour. They have all shown that a substantial proportion of those who initially intend to move do not change residence (Kan, 1999;Moore, 1986).

Macaque societies are typically characterized by despotic dominance styles and strong bonds between related individuals. Interspecies variation in dominance style, however, has been recently documented. This study investigated whether kinship effects on social interactions vary depending on the species dominance style. Reconciliation was chosen as as a measure of relationship quality between group members. Groups of Japanese (Macaca fuscata) and long-tailed (M. fascicularis) macaques were selected for their highly despotic style, and Barbary (M. sylvanus) macaques were chosen for their lower level of despotism. The findings confirmed the hypothesis that kinship effects on reconciliation are stronger the more despotic the species is. Barbary macaque nonkin reconciled more often than nonkin of the other 2 species. In addition, the differences in reconciliation frequency between kin and nonkin were less pronounced among the less despotic Barbary macaques.

The social relationship between an individual and their residential environment is shaped by a range of housing market rules and regulations, by residential choice and by constraints. This paper elaborates on that relationship by focusing on the distance between an individual’s (and his/her household) social position and the social position of the neighbourhood of residence. Through the analysis of large-scale longitudinal register data for each resident in the four largest cities of the Netherlands, we studied the relations mentioned, as well as the residential moves triggered by such relations, as well as the outcome effects on individual-neighbourhood relations in the destination neighbourhoods. We found that the larger the social distance (positive or negative) between an individual and the median social position of their residential neighbourhood, the higher the odds that the individual would move from that neighbourhood. Those individuals that moved tended to select destination neighbourhoods that reduced their social distance. Our findings offer new input for debates and policies relating to de-segregation and social mixing.

The results of this study appear to support the hypothesis that individuals with increased genetic risk tend to live in urban/dense areas and suggest the need to refine the social stress model for schizophrenia by including genetics as well as possible gene-environment interactions.