Dissecting the local: Territorial Scale and the Social Mechanisms of Place

In this thesis, I point to the importance of asking not only questions about the neighborhood effects on the inhabitants that lives there but also asking more fundamental question about what a neighborhood is, how me measure it and what scale means to the way we process the effects. By using a combination of selection models and automated redistricting, I show that scale is very important when investigating neighborhood deprivation. Using administrative borders to isolate deprived areas are inadequate to reveal the intricate and often small clusters that are truly deprived. Furthermore, I show that deprivation is not one thing; deprivation in different geographical settings has a variety of different effects on later life outcomes of the residents. Thus, I argue that place is diverse and complex and that neighborhood research must account for the geographical difference between neighborhoods to fully understand the underlying mechanisms.