Z P Neal
Biographic Data
| ID | 4981 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Z P Neal |
| GIVEN NAMES | Z P |
| FAMILY NAME | Neal |
| SIGNATURE | NEAL Z P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Michigan State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3076-4995 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 82 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 587 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 82 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
Selecting key opinion leaders under practical challenges
When undertaking a community intervention, interventionists frequently recruit the help of community members who serve as key opinion leaders (KOLs). However, selecting a team of KOLs can be challenging because the evaluation of potential teams must balance considerations of members’ availability and diversity, as well as the team’s breadth of network coverage and cost of recruitment. This paper has two goals: to review the practical challenges t…
Network interventions to improve search and facilitate research-practice transfer
Tracking types of non‐parents in the United States
Background Efforts to document different types of non‐parents have distinguished those who are voluntarily childless, involuntarily childless, and temporarily childless. However, an expanded approach is needed to incorporate the role of non‐biological children and to classify individuals who do not want children despite infecundity or who are undecided about wanting children. Objective This study operationalizes the Attitudes, Behavior, and Circu…
Estimating the percentage of men who are childfree using the National Survey of Family Growth: A comment on Bozick (2023)
Objective This comment aims to clarify trends in the percentage of men in the United States who are childfree (i.e., do not have and do not want children). Background Bozick (2023, Journal of Marriage and Family , 85 (1), 293–304) used data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to examine trends in the percentage of men who are childfree during the first two decades of the 2000s, concluding that there was a considerable increase. Howev…
Understanding the developmental transition between parallel and social play during preschool: A multiplex social network analysis
Preschoolers are expected to transition from parallel play, where they engage in similar activities next to peers, to social play, where they engage in direct interactions with peers. We use longitudinal, multiplex social network analysis to examine the transition between observed parallel and social play over a school year in a 3-year-old classroom ( N = 25, 45% girls, 48% White) and a 4-year-old classroom ( N = 28, 42.86% girls, 60.71% White). …
Trends in the Prevalence of Childfree Women in the Philippines, 1993-2022
Research has documented trends in, and demographic associations with, the prevalence of childfree women in multiple countries. However, despite significant media coverage, little is known about childfree women in the Philippines. We use population-representative data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program to investigate changes in the prevalence of childfree women age 15-49 in the Philippines between 1993 and 2022 (Pooled N = 120,3…
A Framework for Studying Adults who Neither have Nor Want Children
The population of adults who neither have nor want children is large and growing. However, it remains poorly understood because its members can be difficult to identify in traditional demographic surveys, and existing research on the population uses a range of methods and terms. In this paper, we review current practices, then to bring a level of consistency and comparability to this literature, we propose a common framework for studying this pop…
Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Academia: Modeling the Roles of Perceived Contextual Norms and Motivation to Collaborate
In academia, interdisciplinary collaborations allow individuals with different areas of expertise and resources to accomplish shared goals. Nevertheless, because interdisciplinary scholars often have different knowledge areas or methodological training, such collaborations may be less likely to form. In this manuscript, we provide a step toward understanding how interdisciplinary collaborations form within academic contexts. Specifically, we prop…
The epistemology of evidence-based policies and practices: A comment on ‘When is it justified to claim that a practice or policy is evidence-based? Reflections on evidence and preferences’ by Christia…
This commentary responds to Gade in ‘When is it justified to claim that a practice or policy is evidence-based? Reflections on evidence and preferences’( Evidence & Policy , 20(2): 244–253, DOI: 10.1332/174426421X16905606522863)
A stopping rule for randomly sampling bipartite networks with fixed degree sequences
When can networks be inferred from observed groups
Collecting network data directly from network members can be challenging. One alternative involves inferring a network from observed groups, for example, inferring a network of scientific collaboration from researchers’ observed paper authorships. In this paper, I explore when an unobserved undirected network of interest can accurately be inferred from observed groups. The analysis uses simulations to experimentally manipulate the structure of th…
The not-so-forbidden triad: Evaluating the assumptions of the Strength of Weak Ties
The Strength of Weak Ties is among the most influential social theories of the past 50 years. However, its prediction that weak ties are especially useful for obtaining novel information is sometimes not supported. To understand why, I investigate whether social networks typically satisfy the theory’s assumptions, and whether the theory’s prediction is robust to violations of its assumptions. First, examining a diverse corpus of 56 empirical soci…
Recommendations for sharing network data and materials
One of the goals of open science is to promote the transparency and accessibility of research. Sharing data and materials used in network research is critical to these goals. In this paper, we present recommendations for whether, what, when, and where network data and materials should be shared. We recommend that network data and materials should be shared, but access to or use of shared data and materials may be restricted if necessary to avoid …
Are larger cities more central in urban networks: A meta-analysis
As cities develop more and longer-range external relations, some have challenged the long-standing notion that population size indicates a city's power in its urban system. But are population size and network centrality really independent properties in practice, or do larger cities tend to be more central in urban networks? To answer this question, we conducted a systematic literature search and meta-analysed 41 reported correlations between city…
When Is a Matrix a Geographical Network
Geographical networks are spatial networks in which the nodes have a socially constructed meaning; nodes represent places. All geographical networks can be represented as matrices, but not all matrices in geography represent networks. We argue that a matrix must have at least three properties to represent a geographical network: The rows and columns must represent places that can be associated through the interaction of interest, the entries must…
Childfree in a Family-Friendly Neighborhood
Zachary P. Neal and Jennifer Watling Neal on preferences and perceptions
The duality of networks and groups: Models to generate two-mode networks from one-mode networks
Shared memberships, social statuses, beliefs, and places can facilitate the formation of social ties. Two-mode projections provide a method for transforming two-mode data on individuals’ memberships in such groups into a one-mode network of their possible social ties. In this paper, I explore the opposite process: how social ties can facilitate the formation of groups, and how a two-mode network can be generated from a one-mode network. Drawing o…
Analysis of Spatial Networks From Bipartite Projections Using the R Backbone Package
Bipartite projections have become a common way to measure spatial networks. They are now used in many subfields of geography, and are among the most common ways to measure the world city network, where intercity links are inferred from firm co‐location patterns. Bipartite projections are attractive because a network can be indirectly inferred from readily available data. However, spatial bipartite projections are difficult to analyze because the …
Racial Disparities in Covid-19 Impacts in Michigan, USA
Defining brokers, intermediaries, and boundary spanners: A systematic review
Brokerage as an urban and regional process between systems and scales
Brokerage is a process through which actors gain strategic advantage from being in-between two others. Traditionally, research has focused on people and organizations to understand how brokerage either facilitates or impedes the transmission of information or knowledge, and how this impacts both the actors and their networks. Here, we demonstrate how firms and other economic actors facilitate brokerage between cities and regions by drawing upon r…
Inferring signed networks from preschoolers' observed parallel and social play
Homophily in collaborations among US House Representatives, 1981-2018
That'll move the chains: Collecting network chain data
Development and Governance of Smart and Connected Communities
This entry describes the beginnings, maturation, and potential future of smart and connected communities (SCC) as a research topic. While there are multiple dimensions of SCC, the focus of the entry is on the development and governance of SCC and the role of participants from government, commerce, and applied research.
Nested or Networked? Future Directions for Ecological Systems Theory
B ronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory ( EST ) is among the most widely adopted theoretical frameworks for studying individuals in ecological contexts. In its traditional formulation, different levels of ecological systems are viewed as nested within one another. In this article, we use Simmel's notion of intersecting social circles and Bronfenbrenner's earlier writing on social networks to develop an alternative ‘networked’ model that inste…
The Niche as a Theoretical Tool
For several decades, the concept of the niche has enriched sociological theory. The niche represents the position or function of an entity, such as an organization or population of organizations, within a larger community environment. Using the concept of the niche allows researchers to go beyond classifying entities to understanding (a) their life chances under different and changing environmental conditions and (b) how they interact under the c…
The (In)compatibility of Diversity and Sense of Community
Community psychologists are interested in creating contexts that promote both respect for diversity and sense of community. However, recent theoretical and empirical work has uncovered a community‐diversity dialectic wherein the contextual conditions that foster respect for diversity often run in opposition to those that foster sense of community. More specifically, within neighborhoods, residential integration provides opportunities for intergro…
Differentiating Centrality and Power in the World City Network
Centrality and power have become common foci for world city network research and frequently serve as tools for describing cities’ position or status in the system. However, these concepts are difficult to define and measure. Often they are treated as equivalent: more central cities have more power. This paper challenges this assumed equivalence by proposing conceptually distinct definitions and developing two new measures that allow them to be di…
Transforming Individual Civic Engagement into Community Collective Efficacy: The Role of Bonding Social Capital
Collective efficacy is defined as residents’ perceived collective capacity to take coordinated and interdependent action on issues that affect their lives. This study explored factors associated with neighborhood collective efficacy among residents. Utilizing a national sample of 4,120 urban households provided by Annie E. Casey Foundation's Making Connection Initiative, we investigated the mediating role of residents’ perceptions of bonding soci…
Refining the Air Traffic Approach to City Networks
Despite embracing the concept of networks to help explain the organisation of modern urban systems, measurement has presented an overriding challenge to researchers: how can linkages between cities be operationalised? Airline traffic data have been proposed as a promising solution, but these data introduce their own complications. In this paper, the Airline Origin and Destination Survey is used to refine this approach, distinguishing first betwee…
The duality of world cities and firms: Comparing Networks, Hierarchies, and Inequalities in the Global Economy
Much of the research on globalization conceives of the global economy as structured by networks among places, while separately organizational research has examined the role of networks among firms in structuring competition, collaboration, and cooperation. In both cases, position and centrality within the network confers certain advantages and disadvantages, the distribution of which defines a hierarchy. In this article, I explore the idea of dua…
A sign of the times? Weak and strong polarization in the U.S. Congress, 1973–2016
Disentangling agglomeration and network externalities: A conceptual typology
Power as a Structural Phenomenon
In an effort to inform empowerment theory and research, this paper provides a structural conception of power. First, we examine the essential features present in three dominant conceptions of power in community psychology: social power, psychopolitical power, and relational power. Next, commonalities in the key features of power identified by these conceptions are explored and pared down to yield a more parsimonious conception of power that is gr…
Transforming social cohesion into informal social control: Deconstructing collective efficacy and the moderating role of neighborhood racial homogeneity
This study investigates the relationship between perceptions of social cohesion and informal social control within U.S. urban neighborhoods and adds neighborhood racial homogeneity to investigate the ways in which racial homogeneity may contribute to effects on informal social control, as theorized by social disorganization researchers. Data from the Annie E. Casey’s Making Connections initiative (level 1) and the 2010 decennial census (level 2) …
Expediting the Analysis of Qualitative Data in Evaluation: A Procedure for the Rapid Identification of Themes From Audio Recordings (Rita)
Qualitative data offer advantages to evaluators, including rich information about stakeholders’ perspectives and experiences. However, qualitative data analysis is labor-intensive and slow, conflicting with evaluators’ needs to provide punctual feedback to their clients. In this method note, we contribute to the literature on rapid evaluation and assessment methods by proposing procedures that evaluators can use to expedite the coding and analysi…
Making Big Communities Small: Using Network Science to Understand the Ecological and Behavioral Requirements for Community Social Capital
The concept of social capital is becoming increasingly common in community psychology and elsewhere. However, the multiple conceptual and operational definitions of social capital challenge its utility as a theoretical tool. The goals of this paper are to clarify two forms of social capital (bridging and bonding), explicitly link them to the structural characteristics of small world networks, and explore the behavioral and ecological prerequisite…
From Central Places to Network Bases: A Transition in the U.S. Urban Hierarchy, 1900–2000
The notion of a hierarchy among cities has long been part of the theoretical tool kit of urban sociologists, geographers, and economists. Reviewing the evolution of the urban hierarchy concept, this paper empirically demonstrates a hypothesized transition in the U.S. urban hierarchy during the twentieth century, from size based to network based. Three urban types, following distinct trajectories during this shift, are explored: the primate city, …
The Public School as a Public Good: Direct and Indirect Pathways to Community Satisfaction
Individuals’ satisfaction with their community can play an important role in urban politics, and the quality of public schools is a key predictor of community satisfaction. However, most discussions of public schools focus only on their educational and social benefits for children, although others expand the scope to consider benefits to their parents as well. In this paper, we take a broader view, arguing that local public schools are providers …
Network Analysis in Community Psychology: Looking Back, Looking Forward
Highlights Network analysis is ideally suited for community psychology research because it focuses on context. Use of network analysis in community psychology is growing. Network analysis in community psychology has employed some potentially problematic practices. Recommended practices are identified to improve network analysis in community psychology
The Causal Relationship between Employment and Business Networks in U.S. Cities
Scholars from a range of disciplines have long recognized that a city’s economic fortunes are closely tied to its position in networks of interurban exchanges. However, it remains unclear whether cities occupy a central position in the network because they are sites of significant economic activity (i.e., a flow generation hypothesis), or whether they experience greater economic growth because they occupy a central position in the network (i.e., …
Brokering the Research–Practice Gap: A typology
Despite widespread recognition of a research–practice gap in multiple service sectors, less is known about how pre‐existing communication channels facilitate the flow of information between researchers and practitioners. In the current study, we applied an existing typology of brokerage developed by Gould and Fernandez (Sociol Methodol 19:89–126, 1989 ) to examine what types of brokerage facilitate information spread between researchers and educa…
Brute Force and Sorting Processes: Two Perspectives on World City Network Formation
The interlocking network model has provided a framework for examining world city networks for over a decade. However, it implicitly adopts a ‘brute force’ perspective in which intercity linkages are forged by cities’ sheer economic size. This paper develops a complementary ‘sorting process’ perspective in which linkages are viewed as arising from the complex process through which firms are sorted into cities. It describes a new statistical test a…
Creative Employment and Jet Set Cities: Disentangling Causal Effects
Whether people follow jobs or jobs follow people has been a central question in urban economics for decades. Because urban leaders increasingly focus on creative jobs as a growth strategy and because temporary city visitors play an increasingly significant role in economic processes, this study addresses a modified version of this question: do air passengers follow creative jobs (the flow generation hypothesis), or do creative jobs follow air pas…
Homophily in collaborations among US House Representatives, 1981-2018
Validity in World City Network Measurements
In the literature on world city networks, there has been a proliferation of both theories and measurement methodologies, but relatively little attention to the linkage between theory and measurement. In this paper, I review the interlocking world city network model ( IWCNM ) and three additional bipartite projection‐based measures of the world city network, considering which theoretical conception of the ‘world city network’ construct each can va…
Channels of Change: Contrasting Network Mechanisms in the Use of Interventions
This study informs community science, and seeks to narrow the research-to-practice gap, by examining how the interpersonal networks within a setting influence individuals' use of interventions. More specifically, it explores the role of two network mechanisms-cohesion and structural similarity-in urban elementary school teachers' use of interventions designed to improve academic and behavioral outcomes for students. Lagged regression models exami…
Culinary Deserts, Gastronomic Oases: A Classification of US Cities
This paper explores the role of restaurants, as consumption spaces, in defining the consumptional identity of 243 American cities. Specifically, it is asked whether, and how, US cities can be classified on the basis of the local prevalence of specific types of restaurants-are some cities culinary deserts, while others are gastronomic oases? A two-stage cluster analysis reveals four distinct city types, which fall along two intersecting dimensions…
Does World City Network Research Need Eigenvectors
In a 2011 paper, I introduced the conceptual distinction between positions of centrality and power in world city networks and offered a new measure—now called alter-based centrality—designed to quantify the network positions of cities. Here, I respond to some conceptual and mathematical critiques of those ideas raised by Boyd et al. (2013) in their Comment on Neal (2011). On the conceptual side, I clarify the definitions of centrality and power, …
Culinary Deserts, Gastronomic Oases: A Classification of US Cities
This paper explores the role of restaurants, as consumption spaces, in defining the consumptional identity of 243 American cities. Specifically, it is asked whether, and how, US cities can be classified on the basis of the local prevalence of specific types of restaurants-are some cities culinary deserts, while others are gastronomic oases? A two-stage cluster analysis reveals four distinct city types, which fall along two intersecting dimensions…
The Niche as a Theoretical Tool
For several decades, the concept of the niche has enriched sociological theory. The niche represents the position or function of an entity, such as an organization or population of organizations, within a larger community environment. Using the concept of the niche allows researchers to go beyond classifying entities to understanding (a) their life chances under different and changing environmental conditions and (b) how they interact under the c…
The duality of world cities and firms: Comparing Networks, Hierarchies, and Inequalities in the Global Economy
Much of the research on globalization conceives of the global economy as structured by networks among places, while separately organizational research has examined the role of networks among firms in structuring competition, collaboration, and cooperation. In both cases, position and centrality within the network confers certain advantages and disadvantages, the distribution of which defines a hierarchy. In this article, I explore the idea of dua…
Managing Editor's Farewell
From Central Places to Network Bases: A Transition in the U.S. Urban Hierarchy, 1900–2000
The notion of a hierarchy among cities has long been part of the theoretical tool kit of urban sociologists, geographers, and economists. Reviewing the evolution of the urban hierarchy concept, this paper empirically demonstrates a hypothesized transition in the U.S. urban hierarchy during the twentieth century, from size based to network based. Three urban types, following distinct trajectories during this shift, are explored: the primate city, …
Refining the Air Traffic Approach to City Networks
Despite embracing the concept of networks to help explain the organisation of modern urban systems, measurement has presented an overriding challenge to researchers: how can linkages between cities be operationalised? Airline traffic data have been proposed as a promising solution, but these data introduce their own complications. In this paper, the Airline Origin and Destination Survey is used to refine this approach, distinguishing first betwee…
A Neighborhood That Never Changes: Gentrification, Social Preservation, and the Search for Authenticity
The Causal Relationship between Employment and Business Networks in U.S. Cities
Scholars from a range of disciplines have long recognized that a city’s economic fortunes are closely tied to its position in networks of interurban exchanges. However, it remains unclear whether cities occupy a central position in the network because they are sites of significant economic activity (i.e., a flow generation hypothesis), or whether they experience greater economic growth because they occupy a central position in the network (i.e., …
Channels of Change: Contrasting Network Mechanisms in the Use of Interventions
This study informs community science, and seeks to narrow the research-to-practice gap, by examining how the interpersonal networks within a setting influence individuals' use of interventions. More specifically, it explores the role of two network mechanisms-cohesion and structural similarity-in urban elementary school teachers' use of interventions designed to improve academic and behavioral outcomes for students. Lagged regression models exami…
Power as a Structural Phenomenon
In an effort to inform empowerment theory and research, this paper provides a structural conception of power. First, we examine the essential features present in three dominant conceptions of power in community psychology: social power, psychopolitical power, and relational power. Next, commonalities in the key features of power identified by these conceptions are explored and pared down to yield a more parsimonious conception of power that is gr…
Differentiating Centrality and Power in the World City Network
Centrality and power have become common foci for world city network research and frequently serve as tools for describing cities’ position or status in the system. However, these concepts are difficult to define and measure. Often they are treated as equivalent: more central cities have more power. This paper challenges this assumed equivalence by proposing conceptually distinct definitions and developing two new measures that allow them to be di…
Featured Graphic. City Networks in the United States: A Comparison of Four Models
The Multiple Meanings of Peer Groups in Social Cognitive Mapping
Social cognitive mapping (SCM) is a common approach to identifying peer groups in developmental research. However, this approach involves three stages that each implies a unique conception of peer group. This article aims to bring conceptual clarity to the identification of peer groups using SCM by demonstrating how the meaning of peer groups differs at each stage of SCM. First, in the data collecting stage, interaction groups identify sets of ch…
Opening the Black Box of Social Cognitive Mapping
The Public School as a Public Good: Direct and Indirect Pathways to Community Satisfaction
Individuals’ satisfaction with their community can play an important role in urban politics, and the quality of public schools is a key predictor of community satisfaction. However, most discussions of public schools focus only on their educational and social benefits for children, although others expand the scope to consider benefits to their parents as well. In this paper, we take a broader view, arguing that local public schools are providers …
Creative Employment and Jet Set Cities: Disentangling Causal Effects
Whether people follow jobs or jobs follow people has been a central question in urban economics for decades. Because urban leaders increasingly focus on creative jobs as a growth strategy and because temporary city visitors play an increasingly significant role in economic processes, this study addresses a modified version of this question: do air passengers follow creative jobs (the flow generation hypothesis), or do creative jobs follow air pas…
Nested or Networked? Future Directions for Ecological Systems Theory
B ronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory ( EST ) is among the most widely adopted theoretical frameworks for studying individuals in ecological contexts. In its traditional formulation, different levels of ecological systems are viewed as nested within one another. In this article, we use Simmel's notion of intersecting social circles and Bronfenbrenner's earlier writing on social networks to develop an alternative ‘networked’ model that inste…
Does World City Network Research Need Eigenvectors
In a 2011 paper, I introduced the conceptual distinction between positions of centrality and power in world city networks and offered a new measure—now called alter-based centrality—designed to quantify the network positions of cities. Here, I respond to some conceptual and mathematical critiques of those ideas raised by Boyd et al. (2013) in their Comment on Neal (2011). On the conceptual side, I clarify the definitions of centrality and power, …
Brute Force and Sorting Processes: Two Perspectives on World City Network Formation
The interlocking network model has provided a framework for examining world city networks for over a decade. However, it implicitly adopts a ‘brute force’ perspective in which intercity linkages are forged by cities’ sheer economic size. This paper develops a complementary ‘sorting process’ perspective in which linkages are viewed as arising from the complex process through which firms are sorted into cities. It describes a new statistical test a…
Identifying statistically significant edges in one-mode projections
The backbone of bipartite projections: Inferring relationships from co-authorship, co-sponsorship, co-attendance and other co-behaviors
The devil is in the details: Differences in air traffic networks by scale, species, and season
Expediting the Analysis of Qualitative Data in Evaluation: A Procedure for the Rapid Identification of Themes From Audio Recordings (Rita)
Qualitative data offer advantages to evaluators, including rich information about stakeholders’ perspectives and experiences. However, qualitative data analysis is labor-intensive and slow, conflicting with evaluators’ needs to provide punctual feedback to their clients. In this method note, we contribute to the literature on rapid evaluation and assessment methods by proposing procedures that evaluators can use to expedite the coding and analysi…
Transforming Individual Civic Engagement into Community Collective Efficacy: The Role of Bonding Social Capital
Collective efficacy is defined as residents’ perceived collective capacity to take coordinated and interdependent action on issues that affect their lives. This study explored factors associated with neighborhood collective efficacy among residents. Utilizing a national sample of 4,120 urban households provided by Annie E. Casey Foundation's Making Connection Initiative, we investigated the mediating role of residents’ perceptions of bonding soci…
The (In)compatibility of Diversity and Sense of Community
Community psychologists are interested in creating contexts that promote both respect for diversity and sense of community. However, recent theoretical and empirical work has uncovered a community‐diversity dialectic wherein the contextual conditions that foster respect for diversity often run in opposition to those that foster sense of community. More specifically, within neighborhoods, residential integration provides opportunities for intergro…
Sociology (47 works) · Computer Science (45 works) · Psychology (35 works) · Political science (30 works) · Social Psychology (23 works) · Global Urban Networks and Dynamics (20 works) · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis (20 works) · Geography (19 works) · Community Health and Development (17 works) · Economic geography (17 works)