Abstract
The second edition of this important book (Kawachi and Berkman, 2003) has gained a new editor, lost three chapters (previously there were 15, now there are 12) and although the title is the same, the rest of the volume has changed. While many volumes as they go from the first edition to the second may have a light refresh with some new additions to current chapters or carefully curated additions to their previous line-up, this is a wholly new second volume with different authors and chapter themes. In many ways that reflects the extensive progress and growth of the literature about which this volume is concerned: anything less than a complete and substantial rewrite would leave too much unsaid, and appending progress to the content of the first volume would have resulted in something more akin to a handbook in size if not content. As such, the previous dual introductions, firstly by the editors with a follow-up by Macintyre and Ellaway have been replaced by a “Progress Report” piece. This seeks to put the revised book into context and to consider what has been, and what remains to be learned.
There are two substantive sections in the book. The first is as before (in both volumes the first section relates to the current methodological challenges), but then the original second and third sections are replaced by a single collection looking at the connections between neighbourhoods and health. The methodological section situates the book very firmly as a guide for those wanting to explore the association between neighbourhoods and health. Whilst not being an explicit ‘how to’ guide, the chapters form together to provide a mixture of overviews of approaches that researchers have taken to explore questions about how neighbourhoods can influence individual health both from a data perspective and in terms of research design and approach.
The first chapter asks one of the most fundamental questions in the field – what is a neighbourhood? With the oft used refrain – “I know one when I see one” – the chapter provides a quick tour of the administrative definitions before heading into a discussion about egocentric neighbourhoods and considering the potential of activity spaces. Importantly, given the contested nature of the term and the multifaceted ways it is often used, the chapter does not give researchers a handy (but flawed) one size fits all definition. Instead, the chapter provides a useful insight into the need to consider the purpose of the neighbourhood prior to defining its nature – different questions will require different solutions, and this should be the guiding principle for neighbourhood choice. Afterwards, the tour of methods is as you would expect (Quantitative Measures, Spatial Epidemiology, Experimental and Non-Experimental Designs) along with state-of-the-art future looking chapters (such as Agent Based Modelling) giving insight and examples of the various approaches. The final chapter of this section is a stand-alone work reporting on the qualitative approaches. Whilst it is undoubtedly important to include the qualitative perspective, the lack of balance against the rest of the methods sections is unfortunate. Consigning all non-quantitative work to a single chapter is to underplay the contributions that are made through these approaches and it may have been better (given the tone of the rest of the section and indeed the rest of the book) to omit all together.
The second section provides an introduction to the empirical questions that are often asked in the neighbourhoods field. The five chapters that make up the “Connecting Neighbourhoods and Health Outcomes” section are shorter than the methodological overviews and deal with substantive issues. These range from the design of the urban environment – seen through the lens of the work of the urbanist Jane Jacobs who considers how urban form can promote or hinder healthy life styles – through to discussion about the food environment, spatial stigma and the issue of foreclosures both in the surrounding area and as an experience for the individual. The final chapter discusses segregation and health. In common with all these chapters, the segregation chapter provides an effective definitional overview before examining the evidence for health-related outcomes focused on the particular topic of the chapter. The segregation chapter is particularly effective, providing the means through which a substantial and complex topic can be explored, with illustrations and detail from key papers in on the topic.
What the volume misses, perhaps, is a dedicated chapter suggesting the future. This issue is raised briefly in the introduction but it could also be useful in many of the themes as well as considering the potential direction in which health and neighbourhood-related research can go towards. This is important because, although there is a vast literature on the linkages between place and individual outcomes, in many cases the literature is not clear cut; there are many questions still to be asked and explored. Moreover, given the tone of this volume, it is likely to be of interest to researchers entering the field (postgraduate students especially) rather than to those who are already well connected and within the literature. Perhaps the third edition rewrite in 15 years’ time can look to address that?