Public opposition and the neighborhood effect: How social interaction explains protest against a large infrastructure project

Autor: Wouter Van Dooren, Peter Thijssen, Tom Coppens
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Geography
Planning and Development

0507 social and economic geography
Opposition (politics)
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Public Affairs
Public Policy and Public Administration|Urban Studies

bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Public Affairs
Public Policy and Public Administration|Public Policy

Management
Monitoring
Policy and Law

bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Public Affairs
Public Policy and Public Administration|Urban Studies

SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Public Affairs
Public Policy and Public Administration|Public Policy

Empirical research
Sociology
Political science
050602 political science & public administration
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Public Affairs
Public Policy and Public Administration

Nature and Landscape Conservation
Social movement
Land use
05 social sciences
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Public Affairs
Public Policy and Public Administration|Public Administration

Forestry
Social relation
0506 political science
Collective efficacy
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Public Affairs
Public Policy and Public Administration

NIMBY
Political economy
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences
050703 geography
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Public Affairs
Public Policy and Public Administration|Public Administration

Social capital
Zdroj: Land use policy
ISSN: 0264-8377
DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.08.045
Popis: In the literature on public opposition against spatial projects, social acceptance is considered a key variable in predicting protest. However, the process by which low levels of social acceptance are translated into real protest actions has received less attention in academia. Social movement theories predict that protest participation is strongly affected by social interaction. This article aims to connect theories on locational conflict with the growing literature on the neighborhood effect in social mobilization by conducting an empirical study of rare and unobtrusive data of protest participation, on the neighborhood level in particular. Our case study focuses on opposition against a highway project in the city of Antwerp, Belgium. Based on a large, geocoded database with addresses of protesters and activists, we build a model to analyze activism and mobilization in neighborhoods. We control for the distance between the neighborhood and the project, as well as the socio-demographic profile of the neighborhood. As expected, we find that distance has a significant impact on the occurrence of protest. Contrary to expectations, the aggregated socio-demographic profile of a neighborhood is not significantly related to levels of opposition. However, the presence of social capital and the presence of active protesters are good predictors of protest participation in the neighborhood. These findings support theories on the collective efficacy of neighborhoods.
Databáze: OpenAIRE