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HCD 534 neighborhoods and human dev
4 hours (seminar)
Fall Semesters
Course Objectives
This course will examine how neighborhoods and other geographically derived inequalities influence individual life chances and success across the life course. Particular emphasis will be placed on the mechanisms through which neighborhoods influence child and adolescent development, health, and employment opportunities and outcomes in adulthood. At the end of this course, students should
- Understand how neighborhoods undermine or foster human development throughout the life course.
- Discuss the relevant contexts and key mechanisms involved in the studying neighborhood effects on child and adolescent outcomes, health, and employment outcomes in adulthood.
- Explore and critique the main methodological approaches to studying neighborhood effects.
- Identify and understand some of the problems researchers encounter when trying to estimate neighborhood effects on individual outcomes.
- Analyze how neighborhoods enhance or interfere with the family’s ability to raise children.
- Understand the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and geographical space relate to individual, family, and community development of human, cultural, and social capital.
Topics
- Theories of neighborhood effects on human development
- Conceptual and methodological issues in neighborhood effects research
- Neighborhood effects on child development
- Nieghborhood effects on adolescent sevelopment and educational attainment
- Neighborhood effects on child, adolescent and adult health
- Residential mobility and housing characteristics in neighborhoods
- Neighborhood effects on employment opportunities and outcomes
- Neighborhood ethnic enclaves, immigration and life chances
Graded Activities
- Weekly assignments
- Research paper& presentation