Walk and Be Moved: How Walking Builds Social Movements
Transcript of Walk and Be Moved: How Walking Builds Social Movements
Walk and Be Moved: How Walking Builds Social Movements
Brian B. KnudsenUrban Innovation Analysis(Corresponding author)
1920 S Street NW, Apt. 105Washington, DC 20009Phone: 202-641-8151
Email: [email protected]
Terry N. ClarkUniversity of Chicago
Email: [email protected]
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Biographical information: Brian Knudsen is Research Associate at Urban
Innovation Analysis. He received his PhD from the Heinz College at Carnegie
Mellon University. His research focuses on walking, experience of cities, and
new social movements. Terry Nichols Clark is Professor of Sociology at the
University of Chicago. He holds MA and PhD degrees from Columbia University.
He has worked on how cities use culture to transform themselves, esp. in books
on The City as an Entertainment Machine, and Building Post-Industrial Chicago. His most recent
work focuses on urban scenes.
Abstract: Recent scholarship recognizes the city’s role as “civitas” – a
“space of active democratic citizenship” and “full human realization” based on
open and free encounter and exchange with difference. The current research
emerges from and fills a need within this perspective by examining how local
urban contexts undergird and bolster social movement organizations (SMOs).
Our theory elaborates and linear regressions assess the relationships between
four urban form variables and SMOs. In addition, our theory also examines how
urban walking mediates the relationships between these local contextual traits
and SMOs. Drawing primarily from the ZIP Code Business Patterns and U.S.
Census, we generate a dataset of approximately 30,000 cases, permitting
regression analyses that distinguish strong direct effects of density,
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connectivity, housing age diversity and walking on the incidence of SMOs.
Sobel tests indicate that for both density and connectivity, walking mediates
the relationships with SMOs in a way consistent with the mechanisms of the
hypotheses.
Keywords: Walking, Social Movements, Organizations, Cities
1. Introduction
This paper investigates whether city contexts activate and undergird current-
day social movement organizations (SMOs).1 We elucidate how one’s unique
experiences in cities – the ways in which an individual interacts with and
makes use of urban environments, neighborhoods and spaces – relates to this
particular type of political phenomena. Moreover, we identify the precise
urban contextual traits that pertain to these effects, postulate how these
traits influence the ways in which individuals experience cities, and show the
subsequent implications for political outcomes. In short, this research
explores the intricate inter-relations between the distinct traits and
qualities of cities, our individual experiences of them, and SMOs.
We contend that the physical accessibility characteristic of dense, diverse,
walkable cities enables a social accessibility to a variety of ideas, actions,
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and happenings. Encounter with difference is fundamental to the orientation
of many current-day SMOs. As such, through their capacity to generate and
facilitate encounter with difference, cities serve as a primary social setting
for these organizations. Furthermore, we propose that pedestrian activity –
i.e. walking – bridges between the physical accessibility of urban context and
the social accessibility central to SMOs. Through walking, people experience
both the physical and social diversity of their city in a direct and engaged
manner. Therefore, we contend that walking mediates the relationships between
urban context and SMOs. This paper develops these ideas, formulates them into
testable hypotheses, and submits them to empirical test.
There are several primary motivations for this research. First, examining the
links between urban context, walkability, and contemporary SMOs contributes to
and extends the prominent work on Political Opportunity Structures (POS).
Describing the POS as the “structure and dynamics of the political
environment”, McCright and Clark (2006) note that the POS conceptualization
helps to probe the factors that cause “variation in the mobilization of social
movements across U.S. communities.” They contend that existing accounts of
political opportunity structures too rigidly define the concept as equivalent
to institutional and state-based factors. By looking at the relationships
between urban contexts, walkability, and SMOs, this work extends the concept
of POS by examining a number of other contextual variables that help explain
the emergence and mobilization of movement organizations.
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Second, by postulating the city as a context for current-day SMOs, we add to
the growing scholarship revealing the ways in which modern cities enable
important social processes. Jennings (2001) suggests that in the Western
tradition, cities have been conceptualized as venues for two different forms
of social activity, “urbs” and “civitas”. The “urbs” perspective portrays
cities primarily as economic markets, and recent social scientific research
(e.g., Acs and Armington 2004; Florida 2002; Glaeser 1994) explores the city
as the setting for economic accumulation, market exchange, and the force
behind growth. This study is instead situated within a different tradition,
described by Jennings as “the city as ‘civitas’”: the city (88) as a “space of
active democratic citizenship, equality under the law, and civic virtue”, as
well as “full human self-realization”. Instead of a city based upon (91)
individualistic “instrumental relationships of economic transaction”, the city
as civitas is organized around (89) the “active pursuit of shared purpose”,
and (91) the “sharing of a common moral space, common commitment to each
other, and a common political identity”.
By hypothesizing cities as spaces for contemporary SMOs, this paper presents a
specific characterization of the city as civitas. There are a number of
reasons for focusing on this particular account. One primary reason is that
although current research has looked at other important overlaps between
politics and the city, there is a distinct lack of scholarship concerning this
intersection of contemporary movement organizations and cities. For instance,
a number of studies (e.g., Gainsborough 2001; Oliver 2001; Walks 2004) have
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pointed to differences in voting behavior, party preferences, and political
attitudes between people living in and out of cities and urban contexts.
Other important work (e.g., Ferman 1996; Logan and Molotch 1987; Peterson
1981; Stone 1993) has focused on urban governance and the characteristics of
the coalitions that influence municipal government and policy formation.
Castells’ (1983) study on historical urban movements remains an important
contribution. By contrast, little analysis probes the ways in which modern-
day movements relate to cities. For instance, Nicholls (2008, 841) points out
that “…few have actually opened up the urban ‘black box’ to identify the
processes and mechanisms that allow cities to play specific roles in broad
social movements.” We contend that the “processes and mechanisms” linking
present-day SMOs and cities stem from the centrality of diversity to these
SMOs and the role that cities play as spaces of difference. Therefore, this
paper makes an important contribution by hypothesizing and testing specific
mechanisms and processes by which cities enable these organizations.
2. Concepts
2.1 Contemporary Social Movement Organizations
This paper seeks to explain the incidence of present-day SMOs. Movement
organizations have diversified since the 1970s, and grown more complex to
capture conceptually. Noting such diversity, social movement theorists tried
to explain variations by introducing concepts like political opportunity
structure, framing (adapted from Goffman and Snow) and the internal
organizational structure (Della Porta, Kriesi, and Rucht l999; McAdam,
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McCarthy, and Zald 1996). Some groups have adopted feminist issues; others
have embraced government and foundation policies; still others have linked
with political parties—all of which can be cited as evidence of the success of
movement agendas. From the 1970s to early 1990s many of the New Social
Movements (Offe 1985) became “institutionalized” and “professionalized” (Clark
and Kallman 2011) as they mimicked political parties and retained many
hierarchical elements, official membership, voting for officers, and
bureaucratic domination. Some were even dominated by unions or political
parties or other actors, such as the Tuscany environmental movements that were
supported by mayors and their parties (Della Porta and Andretta 2002). By
contrast, some later groups seek to recover the non-institutional politics
foregone by many New Social Movements in recent decades by deemphasizing
hierarchical structure, by more explicitly emphasizing organizational
horizontality, spontaneity, and leaderless decentralization, and by allowing
individuals to act autonomously (Graeber 2003; Clark and Kallman 2011;
McDonald 2006). Examples of this later movement activity include alter-
globalization protests at IMF and World Bank meetings in the late 1990s as
well as the Occupy concerns of 2011. We have termed them New New Social
Movements, but there has been minimal reconceptualization. This may be due in
part to the joint participation of these multiple types of organizations at a
single protest site, the refusal of overall coordination among activists, and
mutual ignorance of many. Deeper ethnography is one approach to seek to
disentangle such subtleties.
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Our approach recognizes such distinctions, but moves in a broader comparative
direction. We think we are the first to discover and analyze electronic
unpublished data for environmental, human rights, and other types of social
movement organizations, from the US Census of Business. These data are
advantageous in that they provide SMO totals for each of the approximately
32,000 Zip Code Tabulation Areas, the Census version of US Postal Service Zip
Codes. This broad coverage permits analysis of how the density of such
organizations compares across the entire U.S., as well as investigations into
why it varies. We have only the self-reported categories of organizations in
terms of North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes, and
thus cannot assess how much each may be strongly egalitarian, idealistic, or
narrowly NIMBY in style. Clearly there is variation among “environmental
groups,” but this is equally true of many social movement studies, and our
Business Census items can also be compared to “religious groups,” “business
groups” and other categories. The variations are so large that it is
appealing to investigate their sources. We thus refer to SMOs in a broad
manner, operationalized with these Census categories of social, environmental,
and human rights groups (detail below).
2.2 Cities and social movement organizations
The idea that democracy depends on diverse interactions and should thrive in
cites has a longstanding conceptual basis. For instance, Sennett (1999, 276)
writes that a democracy “supposes that people can consider views other than
their own. This was Aristotle’s notion in the Politics. He thought that the
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awareness of difference occurs only in cities because every city is formed by
synoikismos, a drawing together of different families and tribes, of competing
economic interests, of natives with foreigners.” More specifically, Nicholls
(2008, 841) writes that cities contribute to the formation of movement groups
by acting as “relational incubators” that generate diverse social forms
possessing high-grade specialized resources available for use by
organizations.
Substantial earlier literature from sociology, economics, urban planning, and
political theory depicts cities as environments that generate diversity and
that enhance accessibility to it (e.g. Park 1915; Wirth 1938; Jacobs 1961;
Fischer 1975; Jacobs and Appleyard 1987; Glaeser 2000; Knudsen et al 2008).
This work suggests (Talen 2006, 234) a “complex encounter between the physical
world and the social world”, between urban context and enhanced access to and
interaction with diverse social influences, insights, and activities. These
relationships between urban context and enhanced accessibility to social
diversity have clear implications for current-day SMOs.2 Specifically, we
suggest that contexts with greater density, mixed urban uses, connectivity,
and walkability generate and offer the possibility of interaction with a
diversity of physical destinations, and in so doing permit and encourage
encounters with a wide variety of social influences, ideas, and people. These
encounters undergird the formation of SMOs.3 Below we develop a number of
more specific hypotheses relating these components of neighborhood context and
SMOs.
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2.2.1 Density, mixed urban uses, connectivity, and social movement
organizations
Density – the concentration of people, dwelling units, and activity in a
location – both generates diversity and facilitates encounter with it.
Fischer (1975) notes that by concentrating many people together in close
range, dense cities construct the infrastructure and obtain thresholds needed
to support diverse social forms such as unique commercial enterprises,
minority ethnic communities, divergent cultural movements, and dissenting
ideas. By contrast, places with thinly spread populations are homogenizing
and can typically support more mainstream enterprises and views. Density also
facilitates encounter with diversity by creating low transport costs for both
people and ideas. Glaeser (2000, 484) writes that dense “cities excel in
permitting combinations [of diverse ideas] because of the absence of physical
distance.” New ideas and enterprises emerge from the combination of diverse
perspectives, making dense cities conducive to innovativeness. We assert that
dense urban contexts generate and facilitate interaction with diverse social
forms, and therefore support and undergird the formation of SMOs. We offer
the following hypothesis: H1: In locales with higher density, there is a higher incidence4 of
SMOs.
Mixed urban use refers to (Saelens, Sallis, and Frank 2003, 81) the “level of
integration within a given area of different types of uses for physical space,
including residential, office, retail/commercial, and public space.” Urban
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contexts characterized by mixed urban use generate diversity and encounter
with it. As Jacobs (1961) influentially wrote, mixed use generates diversity
by drawing a variety of people to a district for different reasons at
different times, thus supporting diverse establishments, services, cultural
enterprises, and ideas. Intermixing of such uses also brings diverse
individuals to them who intermix as they pass between the various
destinations. Thus, mixed use urbanism contributes to diverse interactions
encouraging SMOs. H2: In locales with more mixed land uses, there is a higher incidence of SMOs.
Mixed building age is a variant on mixed urban uses that also (Jacobs 1961, 212)
“has a direct, explicit connection with diversity of population, diversity of
enterprises, and diversity of scenes.” The relationship between diversity and
mixed building age assumes an association between the age of a building and
the nature of the activities held in it. Well-established, standardized
establishments inhabit more new buildings, since they can support the higher
costs. By contrast, less established, experimental, and higher risk
enterprises can seek out older and less expensive buildings. Writing about
the transformation of a deserted factory site in the Canton neighborhood into
a retail shopping area, Merrifield (2002, 45) reports that “provision for
small-scale businesses incur high-risks: those catering exclusively to a
Canton catchment area would be unlikely to have extensive monetary turnover.
Here small businesses would be hard-pressed to pay any market rent, especially
one that would give the developer an adequate return for their initial
investment.” For these reasons mixed building ages contributes to a diverse
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urban social setting which undergirds SMOs. H3: In locales with more mixed building
ages, there is a higher incidence of SMOs.
Connectivity refers to (Saelens, Sallis, and Frank 2003, 82) the “ease of moving
between origins (e.g., households) and destinations (e.g., stores and
employment) within the existing street and sidewalk-pathway structure”, and is
higher when streets are arranged in a grid pattern with short blocks. Urban
areas with high connectivity provide direct as well as alternative routes to a
destination. By contrast “low connectivity is found in the layout of modern
suburbs and is characterized by a low density of intersections (e.g., long
block sizes), barriers to direct travel (e.g. cul de sacs), and few route
choices.” Connectivity decreases travel costs, increases alternatives and
choices, and creates opportunities for interactions with diversity. Whereas
streets with long blocks are (Jacobs 1961, 179) “self-isolating”, short blocks
enlarge the situation of one’s everyday life by removing impediments to
movement and interaction. Districts with short blocks do not have (Jacobs
1961, 180) “mutual isolation of paths”, but instead streets that are “mixed
and mingled with each other.” The connectivity of short city blocks bolsters
the diversity behind SMOs. Therefore: H4: In locales with higher connectivity (in the form of
short city blocks), there is a higher incidence of SMOs.
2.2.2 Walking and social movement organizations
We can add further specificity to the links between urban context, encounter
with diversity, and contemporary SMOs by exploring how pedestrian activity –
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walking – mediates between these components that undergird SMOs. Many
sociologists perceive a barrier between the physical and social; walking is a
specific mechanism, analogous to social interaction, which can transform its
participants. In their classic accounts, Balzac, Baudelaire, and Benjamin
depict flâneurs playfully traversing cities on foot to (Kramer and Short 2011,
323) absorb “[their] affective intensities for aesthetic translation”,
therefore linking the physical and social in cities. Walking is an engaged
way of experiencing and interacting with the physical and social forms of a
neighborhood, through which individuals can react to density, connectivity,
and mixed-uses; it is a key process through which the values inhering in these
urbane qualities can be enacted, as we elaborate below.
A bridge between cities, walking, diversity, and SMOs depends first on the
existence of a path between urban context and walkability. Substantial
conceptual and empirical scholarship shows that density, mixed urban use, and
connectivity enables pedestrian activity. Saelens, Sallis, and Frank (2003)
argue that these urban traits enable walking because they promote proximity
and directness of travel. Density – of people, housing, retail, etc. – leads
to walking by increasing the number and variety of destinations in an area,
and thus increasing the proximity to any one destination. Mixed urban use
also enables walking: when land uses are sufficiently co-located, distance
between uses decreases and walking becomes feasible and attractive (Smith et
al 2008; Boarnet and Sarmiento 1998). Directness of travel – i.e.
connectivity – is the second factor enabling walking. As noted, connectivity
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reflects the ease of moving between origins and destinations. Connectivity
and directness is achieved when (Saelens, Sallis, and Frank 2003, 82) “route
distance is similar to straight-line distance.” This is higher when streets
are laid out in grid patterns with shorter blocks. As Smith et al note (2008,
238) directness is “expected to enhance walkability by making walking trips
relatively short, direct, and convenient”, by “slowing car traffic via
multiple stopping points”, and by providing alternative routes to one’s
destination. Demerath and Levinger (2003, 218) suggest that connectivity
enhances walkability by placing few “constraints on a person’s chosen route
between two destinations”, thus enabling freedom of movement and freeing
people to take part in as full a range of encounters as possible. In
addition, a growing body of statistical work (Boer et al 2007; Craig et al
2002; Berrigan and Troiano 2002; Greenwald and Boarnet 2002; Frank and Pivo
1994; Handy, Cao, and Mokhtarian 2006) reveals empirical relationships between
measures of these urban environmental traits and walking. For example,
Berrigan and Troiano (2002, 75) find that even after controlling for gender,
race, education, income, and health level, walking is significantly more
prevalent among U.S. adults who live in older homes and traditional urban
neighborhoods with “sidewalks”, “denser interconnected networks of streets”,
and “a mix of business and residential uses”.
Therefore, since walking is a prime means by which individuals directly
experience their city, we stress how it links urban physical and social
activities to create what we could term “socio-physical capital”. We thus
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extend the social capital concept (e.g. Coleman 1988) to explicitly join with
physical surroundings. This undergirds SMOs. Walking permits individuals to
have (du Toit et al 2007, 1679) “frequent casual [face-to-face] contact,
whether intentional or spontaneous”, which is important for several reasons.
First, traits like trust, solidarity, friendship, and predictability enhance
encounters between diverse individuals and encourage collective political
action like SMOs. These traits may be facilitated by the face-to-face contact
of walking. Routledge (2003, 339) writes: there “are features of face-to-face
interaction [such as gestures, tone, and pitch]…that are highly informative;
these features are concealed in computer-based interactions.” These features
combine with (Storper and Venables 2004, 355) “visual contact” and “emotional
closeness” to build trust, solidarity, and predictability. Second, face-to-
face contact improves communication between diverse social elements,
especially when uncodified knowledge is involved. Uncodified information,
Storper and Venables (2004, 354) posit, is “only loosely related to the symbol
system in which it is expressed.” For instance, one can learn a formal symbol
system (i.e. the “syntax” and “grammar” of a language), but fail to decipher
certain information, subtleties, and idiosyncrasies in the system (i.e.
“metaphors”). We contend that much information inhering in the diverse social
forms of cities and neighborhoods is of this “metaphorical” variety, in that
(Storper and Venables (2004, 354) it “includes much linguistic, words-based
expression”, as well as reflecting the different experiences, dispositions,
and backgrounds of urban inhabitants. To successfully transmit the metaphors
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of diverse groups to each other, face-to-face contact permits “a depth and
speed of feedback that is impossible in other forms of communication.”
In summary, by enabling face-to-face encounters with diverse social
influences, walking raises socio-physical capital and thus empowers
individuals to utilize diverse information for political ends. Solnit (2006)
writes that the “exercise of democracy begins as exercise, as walking around,
becoming familiar with the streets, comfortable with strangers, able to
imagine your own body as powerful and expressive rather than a pawn. People
who are at home in their civic space preserve the power to protest and revolt,
whereas those who have been sequestered into private space do not.”
Experiencing urban contexts through walking produces emboldened, empowered
individuals, who can then be forces for change through innovative political
forms like current-day SMOs.5 Thus, codifying in more specific hypotheses:
H5: In locales with more walking, there is a higher incidence of SMOs.
H6: Walking mediates the relationships between elements of urban context and SMOs.
H6a: Walking mediates the relationship between density and SMOs.
H6b: Walking mediates the relationship between mixed land uses and SMOs.
H6c: Walking mediates the relationship between mixed building ages and SMOs.
H6d: Walking mediates the relationship between connectivity and SMOs.
3. Data and Results
3.1 Data
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Empirical analyses6 of the above hypotheses are pursued by combining old and
new data sources, described below. The Zip Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) is the
unit of analysis. Developed as a “new statistical entity” for the 2000
Census, ZCTAs “are generalized area representations of U.S. Postal Service
(USPS) ZIP Code service areas” created to “overcome the difficulties in
precisely defining the land area covered by each ZIP Code”.7 There is a
nationwide total of 33,322 ZCTAs. We use ZCTAs primarily because they are the
smallest geography for which the dependent variables are available.8 ZCTAs
allow for more fine-grained measurement of urban contextual elements than
larger units like entire cities or counties used in much urban research.9
Descriptive statistics for all variables are provided in Table 1.
<Table 1 about here>
3.1.1 Dependent Variables – Social movement organizations
The data used to construct measures of SMOs are drawn from the 2007 ZIP Code
Business Patterns. This is a rich, new data source for social movements and
local political research; we are the first to use it to our knowledge. The
ZIP Code version of County Business Patterns, ZBP is “an annual series that
provides subnational economic data by industry.”10 ZBP data include the
number of establishments and employees in ZIP Codes, as well as payroll data.
Establishments are classified according to the 2002 North American Industrial
Classification System (NAICS), defined as “a single physical location at which
business is conducted or services or industrial operations are
performed….Establishment counts represent the number of locations with paid
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employees any time during the year.” We use ZBP to attain the number of SMO
establishments in all ZIP Codes for a given year. ZBP includes three NAICS
categories we utilize as measures of SMOs: (1) Environment, Conservation, and
Wildlife Organizations (NAICS 813312); (2) Human Rights Organizations (NAICS
813311); and (3) Other Social Advocacy Organizations (NAICS 813319)11. We use
factor analysis to combine these three measures into a single SMO index, and
then use this index as the dependent variable in OLS regressions. These three
measures load highly on a single factor12, indicating an underlying SMO
dimension. We compute the factor scores and use them as values for the
dependent variable in subsequent regressions.
These ZBP data reflect some ideal-typical traits described above, but clearly
individual organizations vary substantially. One issue is how much groups
with paid employees may differ: do they deviate from the idealized conception
of SMOs as decentralized, anti-hierarchical, and informal organizations? To
assess this, we used Guidestar nonprofit financial data in a validation
exercise. Given the relationship between Guidestar and ZBP13, if the majority
of sampled Guidestar organizations possess modest financial resources, we can
conclude that the ZBP groups are more informal and decentralized SMOs. From a
sample of 50 Zip Codes with 1431 downloaded Guidestar organizations14, we find
that a majority are small to moderately sized: 10% have Total Assets of
$25,811 or less, and at least 25% of the organizations have less than $100,000
in Total Assets. 50% of the organizations have no more than $414,363 in
assets, and 40% have less than $250,000.15 These results show a substantial
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overlap with the construct of small, volatile, and non-establishment SMOs.
Still, ZBP also contains older, larger, and more established organizations as
well.
3.1.2 Independent Variables
3.1.2.1 Urban contextual variables
Using data from the 2000 U.S. Census, we measure walking as the percent of
ZCTA workers 16 years and older who walk to work. Of course, individuals walk
for other additional purposes, including for leisure and exercise. We would
prefer to have measures of walking for additional destinations and purposes,
but walking to work is the only walking measure in the US Census.16 Freeman
(2001, 72) concurs. Despite this clear measurement error, we find important
results for walking thus measured. Second, we use data from the 2000 U.S.
Census and the 2000 ZBP ZIP Code Industry Detail File to calculate population
density, housing density, retail density, and employment density. The
denominator in these density quotients is ZCTA land area in square feet.
Third, our measure of connectivity is an estimate of city block density. We
divide the number of Census blocks in a ZCTA by land area in square miles.
Connectivity is enhanced with short city blocks, implying high block density.
We approximate city blocks with Census blocks, and measure connectivity as the
above quotient. Fourth, we employ an entropy variable to measure mixed urban
uses17. Ranging from 0 to 1, this variable takes higher values – indicating
mix – for more even distributions of ZCTA square footage across land uses.
Finally, we use 2000 Census data and Blau’s (1977) index of heterogeneity to
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measure housing age diversity. This variable measures the probability that
two randomly chosen housing units in a ZCTA were built in different year
ranges.
3.1.2.2 Demographic and socioeconomic control variables
In addition to urban context variables, a number of other factors potentially
predict the dependent variables, and are therefore included. These are from
the 2000 U.S. Census for ZCTAs: population, median age, percent of population
15 years and older that is married, percent of households with children under
18, mean travel time to work in minutes for workers 16 years and older,
percent of population 25 years and older with a bachelor’s degree or above,
percent of population 5 years and older living in the same house for five or
more years, percent of housing units that are renter occupied, median
household income in 1999, median gross rent for specified renter-occupied
housing units, racial diversity, and foreign born diversity18. These are
classic in many urban studies. [TERRY: A reviewer asked for references to
studies that employ these “classic” measures. Can we leave the text as it
currently reads, or do we need to insert references here?] Yes lets ignore.
3.2 Results
3.2.1 Regression results
We estimate several regressions to examine the direct effects of density,
connectivity, mixed urban use, and walking on SMO activity, controlling for
relevant demographic and socio-economic factors. We report standardized slope
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coefficients, computed after mean centering each independent variable and then
dividing by two standard deviations. Gelman (2007) argues for using two
standard deviations as it places all variables – continuous and binary – on a
common scale.
Table 2 reports Gelman standardized coefficients for regressions relating the
SMO index to independent variables described above: (a) social and economic
controls19, (b) urban contextual factors, and (c) walking. The sixteen
estimations in Table 2 are combinations of our density, land use mix, and
walking variables.
<Table 2 about here>
Coefficients on population density, housing density, retail density, and
employment density variables test H1. All four density variables indicate
significant increases in the incidence of SMOs with increases in density. For
instance, in estimations 5 – 8 of Table 2 we observe significant standardized
coefficients on housing density ranging from 0.25025 to 0.31932, close to the
largest magnitudes – and possible importance – of the variables in these
columns. As such, the consistently strong positive and significant
coefficients on these four density measures provide substantial evidence in
support of H1.20
The coefficients on the land use entropy variable provide tests of H2. We
expect positive and significant coefficients, but observe in Table 2
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consistently negative and significant coefficients. H2 is therefore not
supported. However, these results may reflect entropy’s inadequacy as an
indicator of mixed urban use. For instance, Brown et al (2009) describe six
ways in which entropy measures may depict situations other than mixed use. It
remains for future research to identify, construct, and utilize better
measures of mixed land uses, since data limitations do not permit this here.21
Coefficients of housing age diversity test H3. Table 2 shows positive and
significant standardized coefficients: diversity of housing covaries with
SMOs, although the magnitude is smaller than other variables.
Coefficients on “Census blocks / sq. mi” test H4, which suggests that urban
connectivity facilitates SMOs. In all estimations in Table 2, we observe
positive relationships between Census blocks / sq. mi and the SMO index,
consistent with the hypothesis. The magnitudes of the standardized
coefficients on Census blocks / sq. mi are large compared to the other
variables.
Finally, the coefficients on “walked to work” in Table 2 test H5, which
suggests walking heightens SMOs. All models show significant increases in
SMOs with walking. The magnitudes of the standardized coefficients of walking
are larger than most other variables, suggesting the relative importance of
walking in predicting SMOs. An “alternative” walking measure – the percentage
of all workers who walk, bike, ride the bus, or ride the train to work – is
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similarly positive on the incidence of SMOs. Underlying this alternative
measure is the idea that walking, biking, and public transportation are
complementary to and reinforce one another, since places conducive to biking
and public transport are also likely to be conducive to walking. By contrast,
we find a clear and strong negative relationship between SMOs and the
percentage of adults who drive to work. These results provide substantial
evidence in support of H5.22
The regression coefficients of interest are robust to tests for spatial
autocorrelation, multicollinearity, heteroskedasticity, and outlier deletion.
Results are also robust to the inclusion of a dummy variable which takes the
value of 1 if a ZCTA is in a Census Defined Place23 with at least 250,000
population. Results are also similar to Table 2 when regressions are
estimated on the smaller subset of 2,300 ZCTAs from Census Defined Places with
populations of at least 250,000. We also consider the possibility that
liberal ideology (in the American sense) may confound these relationships. In
county-level regressions with the percentage voting Democratic as a proxy for
liberalism, we find that liberalism neither predicts SMOs nor alters the
relationships between urban context and SMOs. Finally, these results still
pertain when the three SMO measures (Human rights organizations, Environmental
and Wildlife Organizations, and Other Social Advocacy Organizations) are
analyzed separately as dependent variables, instead of employing the SMO
index.
23
In summary, we find evidence in support of H1, (density), H3, (mixed building
ages), H4, (connectivity), and H5, (walking), but contrary to H2. (mixed land
use). Furthermore, the large magnitudes on the housing, retail, and
employment density variables, as well as on the connectivity and walking
variables suggest the relative importance of these factors in predicting SMOs
when compared to the other variables included in the regressions.
3.2.2 Mediation
H6 suggests a specific conceptual relationship between a third variable
(walking), the independent variable (urban context), and the dependent
variable (SMOs), specifically that walking mediates between urban context and
SMOs. Mediation implies a causal path (Judd and Kenny 1981; Baron and Kenny
1986) running from an independent variable, through a mediating third
variable, to the dependent variable. The most common test for mediation is
the Sobel test, of the following form: z = αβ αβ /
√α2σβ2+β2σα
2
√α2σβ2+β2σα
2, with the mediated effect calculated as a product of the
coefficients, αβ αβ , where α α is the slope coefficient on density,
connectivity, housing age diversity, or mixed urban use in a regression with
walking as the dependent variable, and β is the slope coefficient on the
walking variable in Table 2. For consistency with our hypotheses, α α and β
must take on positive values. The denominator is the standard error, where
σα2 σα
2 is the variance of α α and σβ
2 σβ2 is the variance of β .
24
Sobel tests indicate that for both density (H6a) and connectivity (H6d),
walking mediates the relationships with SMOs consistently with the mechanisms
of the hypotheses. There are two possible Sobel tests for each of the four
density measures, all eight of which show statistically significant mediation
effects. This is substantial evidence that the effects of density on SMOs are
transmitted through walking. Four out of eight Sobel tests reveal mediation
by walking of the relationship between connectivity and SMOs, thus some
evidence that effects of connectivity on SMOs are likewise transmitted through
walking. Sobel tests do not support H6b or H6c.
3.2.3 Alternative Dependent Variables
Walkable, dense, high connectivity, mixed use urban locales may be conducive
to other kinds of organizations or even for-profits. To explore local
conduciveness to SMOs relative to other types of organizations, we estimate
regressions with different organizational entities as the dependent variable
and compare the effects to regressions with SMOs as the dependent variable.
We use the same ZBP source to construct thirteen alternative dependent
variables. These variables are the factor scores from factor analyses of ZCTA
counts of entities in several NAICS categories. We create an artistic
industry composite index, ten separate composite indices from the financial,
insurance, and real estate (FIRE) industries, and two composite indices of
“Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations”
(NAICS 813).24
25
Using these thirteen measures as dependent variables, we estimate regressions
using the same independent variables in Table 2. In general, after estimating
these additional regressions we conclude that the SMO variable – as compared
to most of the thirteen other dependent variables – is most consistently and
significantly related as predicted by the hypotheses. Specifically, only two
of the thirteen alternative dependent variables – a Securities Dealing and
Brokerage composite index and a Business, Professional, and Political Party
Organizations composite index – have regression coefficients comparable in
direction and significance to those of the SMO index as the dependent
variable. However, these results shed light on the main findings by showing
that our urban diversity measures are distinctly important for phenomena –
like Securities Trading and Business and Professional Organizations – that are
information intensive, rely on knowledge transfer and spillovers, and depend
on face-to-face contact and deal-making, as stressed by Jacobs (1961) and
Sassen (2001). The proximity afforded by dense, connected, and walkable
cities enables this kind of efficient information transfer and face-to-face
contact. Cities are locations for both economic and political outcomes.
3.2.4 Limitations
Our current data and analyses have characteristic limitations of correlational
studies as compared to controlled experiments.
But experiments are unrealistic for most urban research of this sort. theThe
power of our ZCTA-level25 results frankly surprised us by their robustness.
26
Still the walking effects are so dramatic that we are the first to recommend
that others help us explore where and how they may hold or not.
Another data limitation is that the Census ZBP provides no information
on where a group’s membership comes from or where its activism occurs, instead
only the location of its “registered office”. To try to incorporate more
adequately the regions of activity and membership, we repeated our zctaZCTA
regressions for US counties. Using identical variables, we find minor
differences. At the county-level, coefficients on walking are positive and
significant half of the time; density is always positive and significant;
connectivity is positive and significant in all estimations except one; and
housing age diversity is always insignificant.
4. Conclusions
Cities possess size, density, connectedness, and walkability, which combine to
enable learning, speed the creation and transfer of ideas, and generate and
enable bridging across diversity. Cities therefore become locales for social
change and hubs of innovativeness of many kinds – economic, political,
cultural, and even ethical. However, neighborhoods even within large cities
are not homogeneously urbane; drilling down to zip codes provides sharper
detail, an advantage of the zip code data that we suggest others consider
using. Encounters with diverse influences, perspectives, ideas, and issues
are fundamental to the orientation of SMOs. Although permitted by their
27
decentralized organizational form, we find that neighborhood specific social
diversity facilitates SMOs. Given their capacity to generate and facilitate
encounter with diversity, we report that walkable, dense, mixed-use, high-
connectivity urban contexts serve as a social setting to undergird SMOs. We
find that walking mediates between these urban contextual traits and the
encounters with social diversity central to SMOs.
The results in Part 3 support most of the hypotheses.26 The regression
analyses offer strong and consistent empirical evidence linking population
density, housing density, retail density, employment density, connectivity,
and mixed housing ages to higher incidence of SMOs in some 30,000 U.S. ZCTAs.
Potentially most interesting are the findings for walking, which we determine
raises the incidence of SMOs. “Walkability” may therefore be considered a
separate dimension of urban life that should be explored further by social
scientists more generally. Sobel tests provide considerable evidence that the
relationships of both density and connectivity with SMOs are enhanced by
walking. It is primarily through walking that an individual interacts with
and makes use of urban spaces, and is a key means by which the social
diversity inhering in these spaces is realized and utilized. To find that
walking effects are larger than income, local rent, or racial diversity and
that walking builds socio-physical capital is perhaps our major contribution.
These are simple and logical ideas, but this is the first systematic national
study to document such relations.
28
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35
Variable N Mean StandardDeviation
2007 Human rights orgs. 35546 0.079808 0.5734572007 Environmental, wildlife, and conservation orgs.
35546 0.173217 0.690069
2007 Other social advocacy orgs. 35546 0.181118 1.0151022007 Social Movement Organization Index 35546 0.000000 0.9429942007 Securities Dealing and Brokerage Index
39646 0.000000 0.938594
2007 Artistic Index 39646 0.000000 0.8738872007 Depository Credit Intermediation Index
39646 0.000000 0.892089
2007 Real Estate Index 39646 0.000000 0.99801.002007 “813” Index #1 39646 0.000000 0.9337932007 “813” Index #2 39646 0.000000 0.8729872000 Population (in 1000s) 33167 8.599860 12.9790982000 Median Age 33178 36.745875 8.4464452000 Pct. Bachelor’s Degree and Above 32153 18.055106 13.7868792000 Racial Diversity Index 32165 0.219422 0.2112212000 Median Gross Rent (in 100s) 33178 4.746175 2.4141411999 Median Household Income (in 1000s) 32096 39.537554 16.2628262000 Travel Time to Work (in minutes) 32064 26.321232 8.3308332000 Pct. living in same house in 1995 32105 60.896390 12.7621762000 Pct. of population 15 years and older, Married
32165 60.522052 10.367637
2000 Pct. of households with children 0-17 years old
32096 33.055306 10.335134
2000 Foreign Born Diversity Index 27164 0.403940 0.2452252000 Pct. of occupied housing units, renter occupied
32097 24.832883 15.933493
2000 Population Density (in 1000s) 32406 1.132913 4.3362342000 Housing Density (in 1000s) 32406 0.478348 2.0117012000 Retail Density 31821 6.127513 126.0909092000 Employment Density (in 1000s) 34072 1.550155 30.7211722000 Census blocks per square mile 32406 161.803980 14588.1392142000 Housing Age Diversity 32140 0.788679 0.09740972001 Land Use Mix Entropy 32698 0.315632 0.2746282000 Pct. walked to work 32072 3.807581 7.079608
37
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)Social and EconomicPopulation (1000s)
0.16817** 0.08108** 0.24525** 0.19319** 0.15015** 0.07007** 0.21421** 0.16517**
Median Age -0.19219**
-0.20220**
-0.20020**
-0.20320**
-0.18719**
-0.19520**
-0.19720**
-0.19920**
Education 0.34434** 0.40941** 0.32533** 0.39640** 0.32733** 0.38739** 0.30931** 0.37838**Racial Diversity
-0.00400 -0.02402 0.01101 -0.01502 0.00100 -0.01802 0.01602 -0.01001
Median Rent (100s)
-0.06206**
-0.08308**
-0.02803 -0.04304* -0.07007**
-0.09009**
-0.04104 -0.05606*
Median Income (1000s)
-0.08709**
-0.10711**
-0.04104 -0.04404 -0.07908**
-0.09810**
-0.04204 -0.04505
Travel Time to Work
0.03303* -0.01702 0.01502 -0.03403* 0.01602 -0.03103* 0.00000 -0.04705**
Same House, 5 Years
-0.07608**
-0.09109**
-0.07307**
-0.09810**
-0.09409**
-0.10711**
-0.09109**
-0.11512**
Percent Married
-0.05906**
-0.10210**
-0.09309**
-0.14214**
-0.07007**
-0.11111**
-0.10010**
-0.14615**
Percent withChildren
-0.30931**
-0.31231**
-0.31431**
-0.31932**
-0.29229**
-0.29329**
-0.29930**
-0.30330**
Foreign BornDiversity
0.03003* 0.00901 0.04905** 0.03003* 0.03103* 0.01001 0.04905** 0.03003*
Percent Renters
0.04805* 0.12813** 0.05205* 0.14314** 0.01702 0.09610** 0.01401 0.10410**
DensityPopulation Density (1000s)
0.13413** 0.17718** 0.09409** 0.12012**
Housing Density (1000s)
0.28128** 0.31932** 0.25025** 0.27327**
Retail
39
DensityEmployment Density (1000s)ConnectivityCensus blocks / sq.mi
0.31431** 0.31431** 0.36036** 0.41542** 0.25526** 0.25626** 0.28529** 0.34034**
Land-use MixHousing Age Diversity
0.10210** 0.07307** 0.10210** 0.07407**
Land Use Entropy
-0.21421**
-0.31231**
-0.17918**
-0.27427**
WalkingWalked to Work
0.28929** 0.29730** 0.27628** 0.28829**
n 25789 25789 25578 25578 25789 25789 25578 25578R-squared (adj)
0.19520 0.18018 0.19920 0.18619 0.20220 0.18919 0.20521 0.19319
Dependent Variable: Social Movement Organization Index, 2007, **p<0.01, *p<0.05; Table reports Gelman standardized regression coefficients
Table 2 – Regression Results, ZCTA level: Many Significant Variables, but Walking is Robust(9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16)
Social and EconomicPopulation 0.19720** 0.15215** 0.23824** 0.20921** 0.21922** 0.15516** 0.28028** 0.24324**
40
(1000s)Median Age -
0.19019**-
0.19720**-
0.20220**-
0.20420**-
0.19119**-
0.20020**-
0.19920**-
0.20220**Education 0.32833** 0.36537** 0.31732** 0.35836** 0.35636** 0.41742** 0.33834** 0.40240**Racial Diversity
-0.01502 -0.02903 -0.00300 -0.02102 -0.01001 -0.02903 0.00501 -0.01902
Median Rent (100s)
-0.08308**
-0.09409**
-0.06507**
-0.07407**
-0.06907**
-0.08809**
-0.04004 -0.05405*
Median Income (1000s)
-0.08308**
-0.09510**
-0.06106* -0.06406* -0.10210**
-0.12312**
-0.05706* -0.06306*
Travel Time toWork
0.01802 -0.01101 0.00801 -0.02002 0.05205** 0.01401 0.03103* -0.00801
Same House, 5 Years
-0.07508**
-0.08108**
-0.07508**
-0.08909**
-0.04204* -0.04805**
-0.04805**
-0.06406**
Percent Married
-0.11111**
-0.14014**
-0.13013**
-0.16216**
-0.05706**
-0.09409**
-0.09209**
-0.13313**
Percent with Children
-0.27628**
-0.27528**
-0.28529**
-0.28629**
-0.29630**
-0.29630**
-0.30330**
-0.30531**
Foreign Born Diversity
0.02803* 0.01401 0.04304** 0.03103* 0.02903* 0.00901 0.04805** 0.03103*
Percent Renters
0.03604 0.08509** 0.02703 0.08008** 0.09209** 0.17317** 0.08609** 0.17117**
DensityPopulation Density (1000s)Housing
Density (1000s)Retail Density 0.56857** 0.61061** 0.55355** 0.58959**Employment Density (1000s)
0.24525** 0.29129** 0.22623** 0.26527**
ConnectivityCensus 0.15616** 0.15015** 0.16517** 0.19019** 0.30631** 0.31031** 0.33834** 0.38639**
41
blocks / sq. miLand-use MixHousing Age Diversity
0.09610** 0.07708** 0.09910** 0.07307**
Land Use Entropy
-0.12312**
-0.17618**
-0.20220**
-0.28529**
WalkingWalked to Work 0.17718** 0.18118** 0.25826** 0.26226**n 25368 25368 25162 25162 25763 25763 25555 25555R-squared (adj)
0.24525 0.24024 0.24625 0.24124 0.20420 0.19319 0.20721 0.19820
Dependent Variable: Social Movement Organization Index, 2007, **p<0.01, *p<0.05; Table reports Gelman standardized regression coefficients
Table 2, contcontinued. – Regression Results, ZCTA level: Many Significant Variables, but Walking is Robust
BRIAN: How about trying to CUT the regressions by one digit, from 3 to 2; see if it causes problems. Then report that we changed to make more readable?
42
1 This research draws from Knudsen’s (2011) doctoral dissertation, The Local Ecology of
New Movement Organizations. We thank the UAR editors and reviewers, Daniel Silver,
Sam Braxton, and Scenes Project participants for careful suggestions. Most raw
data are available to interested researchers.
2 We seek to go beyond the urban label to specify distinct neighborhood
characteristics, or at least Zip Codes, the lowest level for which our social
movement organization data are available.
3 Of course, scholarship has not reached consensus regarding the relationships
between urban context, diversity, and social processes. Other theories (e.g. Wirth
1938) contend that large and dense cities subject individuals to friction,
disorientation and stress, which lead to atomization and undermines interaction,
trust, and social engagement. This perspective would be more consistent with the
emergence of NIMBY-type organizations out of homogeneous suburbs. By contrast,
regular exposure to social injustice that comes from frequent exposure to conflict
in dense and diverse cities may increase engagement with social movement
organizations. More subtle data are needed to disentangle such specifics.
4 Incidence is here understood to mean the fact of occurrence, and while we aim for
causality, most data only permit documenting associations.
5
Our analysis probably applies more to modern Western societies since
comparatively, these cities may have more open civic activities and active
citizens. We have work in progress to replicate these results in other societies.
6 Any calculations or results not in Tables 1 or 2 are available upon request.
7 For additional information on ZCTAs, see the ZCTA Technical Documentation at
www.census.gov.
8 The dependent variables use data from the Zip Code Business Patterns (ZBP),
described below. Whereas ZCTAs are the units for most of the independent
variables, ZBP uses USPS ZIP Codes. The ZIP Codes used by ZBP are those reported
by the businesses or establishments, or on administrative address lists. The
Census Bureau built ZCTAs in 2000 based on both residential and commercial
addresses, but prioritized residential addresses because they were verified during
the decennial Census operations. The Census Bureau did not have the same level of
verification for commercial address locations, and as such the resulting ZCTAs may
not match commercial addresses quite as well as residential address locations.
This, along with imperfect correspondence in areal representation between ZCTAs and
ZIP Codes (Grubesic and Matisziw 2006), may be a small source of measurement error
in our analyses. Most of the 30,000+ ZIP Codes from ZBP match the Census ZCTAs.
9 Also, past studies (Krizek 2003) show that neighborhood-scale urban form
variables affect travel behavior, which is an important consideration for our
analysis of walking.
10 See description of County Business Patterns at www.census.gov.
11 Other Social Advocacy Organizations are establishments engaged in social
advocacy except human rights and environment, conservation, and wildlife
preservation. For more information on these three NAICS categories, see
description of NAICS at www.census.gov.
12 Human rights organizations (NAICS 813311) have a factor loading of 0.850;
Environmental, wildlife, and conservation organizations (NAICS 813312) have a
factor loading of 0.586; Other social advocacy organizations (NAICS 813319) have a
factor loading of 0.911.
13 ZBP establishments are categorized by NAICS, while Guidestar organizations are
categorized by National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) codes. Correspondences
between NAICS and NTEE are available from the National Center for Charitable
Statistics. For instance, the NAICS code (813311) for Human Rights organizations
corresponds to the following 21 NTEE codes: Q30 - International Development; Q31 -
International Agricultural Development; Q32 - International Economic Development;
Q33 - International Relief; Q70 - International Human Rights; Q71 - International
Migration and Refugee Issues; Q99 - International, Foreign Affairs, and National
Security, Not Elsewhere Classified; R20 - Civil Rights; R22 - Minority Rights; R23
- Disabled Persons' Rights; R24 - Women's Rights; R25 - Seniors' Rights; R26 -
Lesbian and Gay Rights; R30 - Intergroup and Race Relations; R40 - Voter Education
and Registration; R60 - Civil Liberties; R61 - Reproductive Rights; R62 - Right to
Life; R63 - Censorship, Freedom of Speech, and Press; R67 - Right to Die and
Euthanasia; R99 - Civil Rights, Social Action, and Advocacy, Not Elsewhere
Classified.
14 Specifically, we download organizations from 71 NTEE codes that are linked with
the three NAICS codes that we use for the dependent variable.
15 In the upper half of the distribution, 60% of the organizations have less than
$750,000 in assets and 65.33% less than $1,000,000. Total Assets become large in
the very upper deciles, but 80% of the organizations still have assets of less than
$3 million. The skew of the distribution comes into view as Total Assets rapidly
enlarge to a maximum of $644 million from about $9 million at the 90th percentile.
Overall, even though there are large, wealthy organizations at the upper end of the
distribution, a majority of the groups are small to moderately sized, at least in
assets.
16 “Walkscores”, the walkability data from the website walkscore.com, are
calculated for an address based on the number and diversity of destinations nearby
and the distance to them. As such, this measure may better reflect the multiple
destinations to which persons may walk. One could calculate walkscores for random
samples of addresses from all U.S. ZCTAs, and then calculate estimated average ZCTA
walkscores. These average walkscores could be used as a walking variable in
regressions similar to those performed in this paper. However, one shortcoming is
that the destination-based walkscore data only reflects opportunities to walk
(Duncan et al 2011; Carr, Dunsiger, and Marcus 2011) whereas our Census measure
captures actual walking behavior.
17 Downloaded from GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation, calculated
by Lee Mobley as RTI Spatial Impact Factor Data – beta version 2.
18 Racial and foreign born diversity are calculated as Blau’s index of
heterogeneity.
19 Our regressions include as control variables those measures that are relevant to
the analysis and are most readily available given the data we employ and our chosen
unit of observation. However, given data limitations, we are currently unable to
analyze several other potentially relevant controls. These include accessibility
to public transit, availability to office space, and median commercial rent.
20 Coefficients on log-transformed density measures are generally similar to the
above, with some minor differences.
21 Land use entropy is calculated as a combination of the percentages of ZCTA
square feet in different land use categories. As an alternative, one could utilize
these separate percentages as their own measures of mixed land uses. The analysts
who calculated the entropy measure used in this paper were unable to provide us
with separated percentages.
22 Is the effect of walking on social movement organizations confounded by omission
of accessibility to the central business district (CBD)? New, small firms or
organizations may find accessibility to the CBD desirable. CBD districts may also
be more walkable. We thus added a distance to CBD mreasuremeasure in our
regressions. The Census 2010 report “Patterns of Metropolitan and Micropolitan
Population Change: 2000 to 2010” geocodes the addresses of the city hall in the
largest principal city of each metropolitan area. Since city halls are usually
located near their city’s original CBD, they are a reasonable proxy measure of the
CBD. Using ARCGIS, we calculated distances from each surrounding ZCTA centroid to
the CBD within the 363 metro areas. Social movements are fewer in ZCTAs farther
from the CBD. However, coefficients on walking to work, density, connectivity, and
housing age diversity all remain significant. Richard Greene, Northern Illinois
University and University of Chicago, assisted with the CBD computations.
23 Census Defined Places (CDP) can be thought of as urban municipalities. For
example, the New York city CDP has a population of 8 million. By contrast, the New
York City – Northern New Jersey – Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area (of
which the New York city CDP is a part) has a population of over 21 million.
24 To create the artistic industry composite index, we save the factor scores from
a factor analysis of the ZCTA counts in the following NAICS categories: Theatre
companies and dinner theatres (NAICS 711110), Dance companies (NAICS 711120),
Musical groups and artists (NAICS 711130), and Independent artists, writers, and
performers (NAICS 711510). We similarly use factor analysis on the ZCTA counts in
a variety of other NAICS categories to calculate the following ten FIRE industry
composite indices: (i) Depository Credit Intermediation composite index; (ii) Non-
depository Credit Intermediation composite index; (iii) Activities related to
Credit Intermediation composite index; (iv) Commodity Contracts Dealing and
Brokerage composite index; (v) Securities Dealing and Brokerage composite index;
(vi) Other Financial Investment Activities composite index; (vii) Insurance
Carriers composite index; (viii) Insurance Agencies, Brokerages, and Other
Insurance Related Activities composite index; (ix) Real Estate composite index; and
(x) Holding Company composite index. Information on the specific NAICS categories
that comprise these ten indices can be provided upon request. Finally, we perform
a factor analysis on the ZCTA counts for the following: Religious Organizations
(NAICS 813110), Civic and Social Organizations (NAICS 813410), Business
Organizations (NAICS 813910), Professional Organizations (NAICS 813920), Labor
Unions and Similar Organizations (NAICS 813930), and Political Organizations (NAICS
813940). The factor analysis extracts two factors, with business, professional, and
political organizations loading on the first factor, and religious, civic/social,
and labor organizations loading on the second factor. The composite indices are the
factor scores of the two factors.
25 DELETE FOOTNOTE. TOO ELEMENTARY. Sorry idont know what #26 is; deleted with the
text that it was part of.
26 With one-time data we cannot measure causality but only association in all
relations in Part 3. In further work using data over time, we find some evidence
of reciprocal effects. However, to suggest that people who like to walk move to