Naa Oyo Kwate

Research on the social determinants of health has brought into bold relief the importance of social context and material resources.  Studies on neighborhood context and health have shown that physical disorder (e.g., litter and graffiti) is associated with feelings of personal powerlessness and psychological distress, poor self-rated health, psychological distress and impaired physical function.  These findings are particularly important for African Americans, who suffer from a disproportionate burden of morbidity and mortality from a wide spectrum of conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and who often live in neighborhoods marred by disinvestment.  Perceived charm and disorder are more than simple visual assessments of objective cues. Researchers tend to use an essentialist framework in which visual cues are construed as unambiguous and natural in meaning, but responses to those visual cues are informed by individual experiences and freighted by racial and socioeconomic inequality.  Research is needed to advance understandings of the processes by which individuals are more or less likely to perceive built environment characteristics as emblematic of physical disorder.  As well, standard operationalizations of physical disorder need to be expanded, to move beyond relatively discrete instances of disarray or decay that belie the overall infrastructure in the neighborhood.

In this project, drawing on secondary data derived from research studies conducted in New York City and Boston, I examine how aspects of the physical and social environment intersect, and interrogate notions of disorder and charm as unambiguous and deterministic.  The data include systematic social observation of neighborhood streets, census and municipal data, and qualitative and quantitative interview responses.  The project will culminate in a set of journal articles targeting a diverse disciplinary audience.