The (Spatial) Ties that Bind: Space, Place, and Inter-Ethnic Cooperation

• In Event: Identity Politics: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism

Abstract

How does the built environment of a neighborhood interact with its demography to create distinct patterns of contact between social groups? And, how do these patterns of contact shape intergroup relations? Building on insights from urban geography and sociology, I theorize that the built environment influences contact rates between neighborhood residents and that these rates of contact, in turn, have important implications for a community’s capacity to work cooperatively. I test the argument in urban Ghana by combining fine-grained mobility data with street network data to show that street networks influence the frequency of casual contact between neighborhood residents. I then rely on interviews as well as administrative and survey data to test its political effect, applying the argument to ethnically heterogeneous neighborhoods. I show that frequent contact — even when that contact is cursory — can help alleviate the challenges of cooperation across ethnic divisions by decreasing anonymity and increasing expectations of future contact, thus raising the incentives to cooperate and the costs of non-cooperation.

Author

• Paige Bollen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology