Representation, Attitudes, and Behavior
Analyzing the Spatial Dimensions of Community Response to Mental Disability
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7761515 |
|---|---|
| Authors | L Takahashi (0000-0001-5974-3456, University of California, Irvine, corresponding author), L M Takahashi (University of California, Irvine) |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 501-524 |
| Publication date | 1997-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1068/a290501 |
| OpenAlex | W1980018769 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 31 |
Anecdotal evidence indicates that community opposition has become intensified and more focused on human service facilities over the past decade. The irrational, selfish, and exclusionary tendencies often associated with the NIMBY (not in my backyard) syndrome do not reflect the complexity inherent in local responses to controversial human services, such as mental health care facilities. In this paper I instead develop a framework incorporating the broader structure of social relations to explain local response to mental disability. In this framework I posit that marginalized representations of mental disability based in a continuum of stigma lead to rejecting attitudes and behavior. The first national survey of attitudes toward controversial human services conducted in the USA ( N = 1326) provides the data for exploring the spatial dimensions of resident acceptance and rejection. Results of a multivariate analysis indicate that the spatial dimensions of community response are linked to both the structure of attitude dimensions and the spatial location of respondents. The national survey points to three principal attitude types concerning mental disability: social restrictiveness, liberal support, and a NIMBY-type response. The rejection types of attitudes (social restrictiveness and NIMBY) tend to be reflective of attitudes in the Midwest and South, whereas the acceptance attitude type (liberal support) is more reflective of the Pacific region. Regional variations are also important in describing behavioral differences (for example, whether respondents oppose facility siting or not). This analysis provides opportunities for understanding the stigmatization of mental disability, and provides clues about the possible levers which might be used in specific places to promote a more positive representation of mentally disabled individuals
Mental health · NIMBY · Political science · Politics · Psychiatry · Restrictiveness · Health disparities and outcomes · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
Social stigma
Landscapes of Despair
State Apparatus
The Visible Poor
Deinstitutionalization and Mental Health Services
The Homelessness Problem
Understanding and Overcoming the Nimby Syndrome
Planners' Alchemy Transforming Nimby to Yimby
Dispelling the Stigma of Schizophrenia
Stigma
Maybe on my Street
U.S. mental health policy
Community Attitudes Toward the Homeless
Community care of the seriously mentally ill
The Housing Experience of Chronically Mentally Disabled Clients in Hamilton, Ontario
Residential Location of the Service-Dependent Poor∗
The Dilemma of Difference
Community attitudes to mental illness in New Zealand twenty-two years on
Location and Stigma
Housing Famine and Homelessness
Madness and Civilization
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,19 |
| Citation span | 2000 - 2025 (26) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |