Social Mix, Reputation and Stigma: Exploring Residents' Perspectives of Neighbourhood Effects

By exploring the debates about poor reputations and stigmatisation of neighbourhoods in which social housing is concentrated, this chapter argues that living in a neighbourhood with a poor reputation can have a negative effect on individual outcomes. Neighbourhood reputation is not necessarily based on current neighbourhood attributes, but can be rooted in the history of a place. Neighbourhood regeneration programs often aim to change the reputation of a neighbourhood. Despite the belief that living in a neighbourhood with a poor reputation can lead to potentially harmful effects, in-depth knowledge about the dynamics of stigma and whether the situations are improved post-neighbourhood regeneration are limited. This chapter investigates how neighbourhood residents see their neighbourhood and how they think others see their neighbourhood. Using data collected from three neighbourhoods across the city of Adelaide, Australia, it is shown that respondents' own ratings were more favourable than their judgements of how they felt that people from outside the area would view the neighbourhoods. It is hypothesised that this negative external perception might influence the behaviour of neighbourhood residents. The findings also suggest that introducing homeowners into social housing estates to some extent improves the external reputation of the neighbourhoods.