A Place to Go: How Neighborhood Organizations Structure the Lives of the Urban Poor and Negotiate Social Policy

Abstract

Neighborhood organizations are believed to be important in alleviating the plight of the urban poor. This study examines how different types of neighborhood organizations affect the lives of the urban poor in low-income neighborhoods. Qualitative field work was conducted in a faith-based organization, a professional welfare organization, and a volunteer-based organization. Our findings indicate the ways in which these organizations foster social relations between participants, provide daily structure to non-working individuals, and connect people to other organizations and systemic bodies such as the labor market or local government. In addition, the relation between the neighborhood organizations and social policy has been considered, paying close attention to policy processes of decentralization, responsibilization, and social innovation. A central aim of this study is thus to analyze how neighborhood organizations mediate between social processes at the micro-level and macro-level systemic forces. Finally, this study discusses how considering the socially productive role of local organizations may advance neighborhood effects studies.