| Abstrakt: |
Urban scholars have hypothesized that inner-city neighborhoods suffer from a dearth of social institutions, yet they have failed to provide convincing empirical support for their claims. In this paper, I test their hypothesis using comprehensive inventories of Philadelphia?s nonprofit organizations compiled from IRS listings, city cultural and activities fund grant applications, telephone directories and newspaper listings in 1997 and 2003. I integrate these data with demographic information from the 2000 decennial census to explore the size, scope and spatial patterns of Philadelphia?s neighborhood nonprofit sectors. Results indicate that Philadelphia neighborhoods have extensive nonprofit sectors, but have suffered a net loss of organizations over the past six years. While this lends some support to urban researchers? hypothesis that city neighborhoods are lacking institutions, it does not fully confirm their claim, as most neighborhoods still had over 100 institutions per 1000 residents in 2003. Moreover, in direct contradiction with many urban scholars? claims, ethnically diverse neighborhoods and neighborhoods with over 40 percent of residents living in poverty had the largest nonprofit sectors. inally, neighborhoods with the most institutions were concentrated in the central city area, and neighborhoods with similarly-sized nonprofit sectors tended to be located in close proximity to each other. Because neighborhood revitalization policies often involve the development or rebuilding of neighborhood social institutions, these results could a have profound impact for urban policy initiatives. Implications for policy and suggestions for further research in this area are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
