Urban Political Climates as Frames: Why the Diversity-Disorder Link Varies

• In Event: Diversity, Migration, and Urban Politics

Abstract

Theorizing at the intersection of political science and urban studies holds that urban political climates are salient in shaping citizens’ political attitudes and behaviors. Some cities have a more tolerant, liberal or progressive supra-individual atmosphere than others, and recent studies have shown that this impacts individuals’ political opinions and actions: residents with the same background characteristics living under different urban political climates display differences in terms of, for instance, ethnocentrism and voting behavior. In this paper, we explore whether the urban political climate also shapes how residents perceive politically salient aspects of their urban surroundings. In so doing, we focus on the link between the local share of ethnic minority residents and perceptions of disorder. Prior studies that have assessed this link found striking local variations: an association between neighborhood ethnic diversity and perceived disorder was found some cities, but not in others. To explain this variation, we move beyond the dominant focus on single cities and analyze a unique nationally representative dataset containing both survey and contextual data on 4,963 individuals in 255 neighborhoods in 20 cities. Our results show that the urban political climate is an important moderator of the diversity-disorder link: the more conservative the local political atmosphere is, the stronger the relationship between neighborhood ethnic diversity and perceived local disorder. In the most progressive urban contexts, the relationship between diversity and disorder perceptions is even absent. We discuss these findings in the light of theorizing on cultural meaning-making and neighborhood stigma, and we provide suggestions for further research on the relevance of urban political climates.

Authors

• Willem de Koster, Erasmus University Rotterdam

• Jochem van Noord

• Jeroen van der Waal, Erasmus University Rotterdam