The Integration of Black Residents in Suburban Neighborhoods

A Reexamination of the Contact Hypothesis

Bibliographic Data

ID2483641
AuthorsCarolyn R Zeul (Cornell University, corresponding author), Craig R Humphrey (William & Mary)
Year1971
Volume18
Issue4
Pages462-474
Publication date1971-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Problems (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-7791 • E-ISSN: 1533-8533
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/799721
OpenAlexW2048021192
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited16

As blacks move into the suburbs, residential integration becomes relevant to sociological analysis. Previous research shows interracial contact in desegrated urban housing projects dispels racial animosity and aides integration. Racially mixed suburban neighborhoods, however, are unlike housing projects, so the contact hypothesis may not apply. This survey of white suburbanites indicates significant positive relationships between socioeconomic status, cosmopolitanism, and tolerance toward black neighbors. Furthermore, initial and subsequent attitudes of whites toward black neighbors are largely unaffected by contact. Theoretical concepts such as social class and cosmopolitanism, therefore, provide a meaningful frame of reference in explaining the integration of blacks in suburbs

Cosmopolitanism · Criminology · Demographic economics · Economic geography · Economics · Geography · Political science · Race (biology) · Racial integration · Social integration · Social science · Socioeconomic status · Sociological research · Sociology · White (mutation) · Anthropology · Demography · Gender Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research · Social Psychology · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies