A Relational Perspective of Neighborhood Status: The Case of Name-Dropping Networks Among Airbnb Hosts

• In Event: Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 13. Spatial Inequality

Abstract

While urban stratification research has long recognized the importance of symbolic processes in shaping neighborhood status, quantitative studies still heavily rely on aggregated demographic and material measures, such as racial composition, median household income, and home values, to describe and explain neighborhood hierarchy. Bridging insights from the status literature in interpersonal and organizational contexts, we propose a network-based approach to measure neighborhood status, which is fundamentally a relational construct. We use the Airbnb data to construct a neighborhood name-dropping network and analyze symbolic status processes among neighborhoods in Chicago, Manhattan, and San Francisco. The findings show that neighborhood prestige is shaped by both underlying neighborhood qualities as well as racialized and classed spatial imageries proxied by neighborhood racial composition and socioeconomic status. Tourist attractions consistently predict network popularity across cities, highlighting the importance of recreational and cultural assets in shaping symbolic neighborhood status. The role of race and class vary depending on city-specific history and culture. While socioeconomic status is a primary differentiator among Chicago and Manhattan neighborhoods, whiteness serves as the key determinant of neighborhood prestige in San Francisco. These findings advance our understanding of how neighborhood status hierarchies are reproduced and constructed through everyday platform practices.

Authors

• Hesu Yoon, CREST, CNRS, Ecole polytechnique, Groupe ENSAE-ENSAI, ENSAE Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris

• Megan Evans, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research