Social Rank, Residential Effects and Community Satisfaction

Building on the work of Robert Park, Eshref Shevky, Scott Greer and studies of contextual effects, this article inquires into the impact of residence in neighborhoods of varying social rank on peoples' satisfaction with their communities. An aggregate-survey data file on four cities is used to test three hypotheses. Earlier studies have reported little interactive relationship between individual and contextual characteristics on community evaluations. The findings reported here suggest that self-selection factors are at work producing the spurious appearance of a zero relationship. However, even with the effects of neighborhood change controlled, no support is found for the hypothesis that individuals who inhabit neighborhoods of comparable social rank would be more satisfied with their community than those in dissimilar neighborhoods. In addition, the evidence fails to demonstrate an interactive relationship between individual and city social rank characteristics on community feelings. Finally, limited support is found for a predicition that community feelings would be a multiplicative function of relative economic stake and frequency of neighborhood contacts.