Variable responses to neighborhood social contexts: Assimilation,conflict, and tipping points

The social contexts of urban neighborhoods provide a dimension to urban politics which extends beyond the characteristics of discrete political actors. This article shows that the political effects of these spatially defined social environments depend upon individual characteristics, as well as neighborhood properties; the contextual effects are not constant across individual categories or within individual categories across context. Using Democratic identification as the dependent variable, two reactions to context are demonstrated: conflict and assimilation. The interdependency of individual characteristics and contextual properties determines (1) which reaction occurs where for which individuals, and (2) the extent of political differences between occupational classes.An earlier version of this article was presented at the meetings of the Southern Political Science Association, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, November 1979, as Working Paper Number 1 of the Institute of Government Research at Louisiana State University.