Neighbourhood Boundaries

The proposed doctoral project focuses on identifying and drawing flexible neighbourhood boundaries in Belgian cities. Neighborhoods play an important and near-universal role in our daily life, but the definition of the neighborhood nevertheless often remains informal and implicit. Although there are several formal definitions, there is no consensus among policymakers and researchers about the definition of the neighborhood. This lack of consensus stems from the dynamic nature of neighborhoods that reflect a variety of cultural, political and social processes. In the absence of an unambiguous definition, official administrative or statistical boundaries are often used when studying social processes on a neighborhood scale. However, these boundaries are static and rarely adjust to changes over time. The use of such boundaries can have significant consequences for the outcomes of research and policy. Therefore, this project focuses on identifying flexible neighborhood boundaries to enable greater precision in planning and research, and more targeted applications of policy instruments. The project makes use of large, complex data sets and new spatial analysis techniques with theoretical roots in (urban) geography, planning and social sciences.