The “Camden Syndrome” and the Menace of Suburban Decline

Residential Disinvestment and its Discontents in Camden County, New Jersey

Bibliographic Data

ID6404152
AuthorsN T Smith (0000-0002-2142-3841, The Graduate Center, CUNY), Neil Smith (0000-0002-2598-9965, City University of New York, Graduate Center), Paul Caris (Middlesex County Planning Department), Elvin Wyly (0009-0007-7109-412X, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey)
Year2001
Volume36
Issue4
Pages497-531
Publication date2001-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueUrban Affairs Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1078-0874 • E-ISSN: 1552-8332
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/10780870122184975
OpenAlexW2044565297
LanguageEN
Citations received68
References cited27

The recession of the early 1990s drew widespread attention to rising poverty and fiscal distress in inner-ring suburbs, and the next downturn will doubtless revive fears that suburbia could endure the same fate as the inner city. The authors challenge conventional urban theory, which explains suburban decline primarily in terms of who moves in and who moves out, by drawing on the literatures concerning the circulation of capital in the built environment. They present a case study analyzing the systematic withdrawal of capital from neighborhoods southeast of Philadelphia, where suburban decline has been dubbed the “Camden Syndrome.” Multivariate analysis of mortgage lending decisions between 1993 and 1998 is used to test the hypothesis that suburban decline cannot be explained solely in terms of the supposed deficiencies of new residents

Archaeology · Capital (architecture · Development economics · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economics · Foreclosure · Gentrification · Great recession · Inner city · Keynesian economics · Poverty · Recession · Sociology · History · Housing Market and Economics · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies · Urbanization and City Planning · Finance

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub