The Space between Us: Social Geography and Politics

“These studies are consistent with influential theories arguing that social context influences political behavior above and beyond individual characteristics (Huckfeldt 1986; Oliver 1999; Cho, Gimpel, and Dyck 2006; Enos 2017).”

“Finally, our study contributes to the growing literature on political geography (Enos 2017; Jusko 2017; Ejdemyr et al. 2018; Rickard 2018; Rodden 2019) by demonstrating the critical importance of the spatial distribution of poor people in explaining distributive patterns.”

“However, the impact of physical and social contact among ethnic groups on political attitudes and behaviors remains poorly understood (Enos 2017; Paluck, Green, and Green 2018.).”

“Previous scholarship has demonstrated, for example, that under certain conditions, neighborhood racial diversity can either mobilize or depress turnout (Cho et al., 2006; Costa & Kahn, 2003; Enos, 2016, 2018; Oliver, 2001).”

“Evidence suggests that Blacks and Whites tend to live—both geographically and metaphorically—in enclaves that contribute to making interracial interactions rare (Enos 2017; Smith, McPherson, and Smith-Lovin 2014).”

“Numerous studies have shown that individuals often link perceptions of their personal economic situation to the economic conditions of their local community (Enos 2017; McKay 2019; Rogers 2014).”

“This is consistent with related findings on “context” effects showing that voters draw information from their local environments to inform their political behaviors (Enos, 2017; Newman et al., 2015).”

“Second, many of the geographic contexts examined by existing research are large and lack the social significance of smaller subjective contexts like neighborhoods, which are not clearly geographically bounded (Enos, 2017).”

“The so-called ‘contact theory’ (Allport 1954; Enos 2017) builds upon the argument that interaction and contact between different groups – at least under certain conditions – lead to more tolerance and positive perceptions between these groups (Gundelach and Freitag 2014; DeFina and Hannon 2009;…”

“Indeed, seminal political research on measurements of psychological traits (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950; Enos, 2017), group-based attachments (Brewer, 1999; Campbell, Converse, Miller, & Stokes, 1960), and ingroup/outgroup differentiation (Allport, 1954; Posner, 2004; Tajfel…”

“Processes of homophily lead people in close proximity to one another to adopt shared identities and values (Pattie and Johnston, 2000), even if they do not interact directly (Enos, 2017).”

“Recent work has documented that the spatial concentration of voters, in particular by class and income, matters for policy preferences (Beramendi 2012; Enos 2017; O ’ Grady and Wiedemann 2024; Rodden 2010; Warshaw and Rodden 2012) and political representation(DöringandManow2017; Jusko2017).”

“In lowturnout, low-information local elections, and in cities in which racial segregation is often highly salient (Enos, 2017), many scholars expect ethno-racial appeals to be especially important for election outcomes (Collet, 2005; Doering, 2019; Kaufmann, 2004; Liu, 2003).3 In perhaps the most…”

“Enos (2017, 4) argues that “ geography pene-trates our psychology — it affects the very way we perceive other groups — with these changes in perception, it affects our behavior.”

“More specifically, theory and empirical evidence from other domains, especially immigration, suggest that it is exactly the fleeting exposure to out-groups, which Sands studies, that likely prompts adverse reactions to these groups (Allport 1954; Enos 2017).”

“In conflict-affected societies where everyday opportunities for intergroup contact are rare (Enos, 2017), civil-society programs are often among the very few modes of intergroup contact.”

“…with others in our local ecology also determines political preferences and voting behaviour as it exposes us to political information (Huckfeldt & Sprague, 1995), and also results in the adoption of localised norms (Wald et al ., 1988) and value systems (Bengston, 1975; Enos, 2017; Putnam, 1966).”

“…science on intergroup con fl ict known as “ racial threat ” theory, which holds that the introduction of diversity into a previously homogeneous space leads to heightened intergroup animus at both individual and communal levels (see, e.g., Alesina, Baqir, and Hoxby 2004; Hopkins 2010; Enos 2017).”

“Out‐group salience may in turn boost the perceptions of differences between groups, which in turn may raise the perceived value of political engagement among in‐group members (Enos, 2014, 2017).”

“A growing body of research has demonstrated that increases in the local minority population under certain conditions can lead to backlash of many varieties, including perceptions of cultural threat (Newman 2013) and voting patterns (Enos 2017; Maggio 2021; Newman et al., 2018).”

“This suggests that the change in the salience of the neighboring outgroup, perhaps through an effect on perception, was causing the change in behavior (Enos, 2016b).”

“Whereas an increase in the number of out-group members might trigger the perception of threat and intergroup conflict (Blalock 1967; Enos 2017; Olzak 1992), actual contact in the form of ethnically heterogeneous networks of friends and acquaintances might reduce prejudice and hostility (Hewstone…”

“Urban group consciousness may also be weaker on account of greater social diversity and neighbourhood segregation (Enos, 2017), lower trust in local communities (S ø rensen, 2016; McKay et al. 2024), divides between cities/towns (Jennings and Stoker, 2018) or suburbs/urban centres (Borwein and…”

“Assessing public space quality is inherently subjective, as demonstrated by research showing variations across cultural groups [9, 13].”

“Recent work has documented how the spatial concentration of voters matters for policy preferences (Beramendi 2012; Enos 2017; Rodden 2010; Wiedemann 2024) and political representation (Döring and Manow 2017; Jusko 2017; Rodden 2019).”

“The size of the group interacts with how spatially close or spatially distant the in-group is relative to the out-group, which is likely to lead to stereotyping and discrimination (Enos, 2017).”

“Changing population demographics [Hopkins 2010; Kaufmann 2017] in dense and segregated environments [Enos2017] can exacerbate aversion to immigrants.”

“These are, respectively, spatial and role divisions, which create in-and-out-group thrust and determine what groups can get from the city (Anderson, 2010; Enos, 2017; Miller, 2004).”

“Both have geography in their subtitles – Red Fighting Blue: How Geography and Electoral Rules Polarize American Politics (Hopkins 2017) and The Space Between Us: Social Geography and Politics (Enos 2017) – but to them the study of geography does not embrace what geographers do.”

“…urban environments and the arrangement of individuals within them affect the types of interactions people have, conditioning both the breadth and depth of social contact and fundamentally shaping the political beliefs and behaviours of individuals (Enos, 2017; Nathan, 2019; Nathan & Sands, 2023).”

“Enos (2017) emphasizes that residential mobility exposes individuals to new social environments, which can influence political attitudes and increase alignment with prevailing local political norms.”

“…that positive “contact” (i.e. interaction) with minority groups can reduce hostility to them (Paluck, Green, and Green 2019), but the usefulness of this type of intervention is limited by extensive barriers to meaningful contact such as segregated housing and friendship groups (Enos 2017).”

“As contemporary societies experience transformative change due to growth in the population share of minority groups through inter-group fertility differences, immigration, and the infusion of refugees, the detrimental effects of parochial altruism bite all the more deeply (Dinesen & Sønderskov 2015; Enos 2017; McCoy e…”

“…of online segregation to this discussion, engaging with a robust scholarship on spatial partisan sorting in American politics (Brown and Enos, 2021; Enos, 2017; Mason, 2018; Bishop, 2009), and propose a baseline to which we could empirically assess levels of online sorting among the American…”

“It suggests that proximity to large or growing minority populations can increase hostility toward these groups which, in turn, can influence political behavior (Enos 2017; Key 1949).”

“It is well-documented that rural and urban Americans have grown more politically, socially, and culturally distant (Enos 2017; Hopkins 2017).”

“…aux effets de composition, les effets contextuels se concentrent sur l ’ environnement local, les expériences quotidiennes et les événements spécifiques du lieu géographique donné, influençant les attitudes des résidents indépendamment de leurs caractéristiques individuelles (Enos, 2017 : 29).”

“From related research, we know that people use such local experiences as a heuristic when making inferences about societal economic aggregates (Bisgaard et al., 2016) and when forming opinions about redistribution (Christensen et al., 2024; Sands & de Kadt, 2020) and out-groups (Enos, 2017).”

“The work by Enos (2014, 2016, 2017) is particularly relevant in this respect, providing evidence that increased immigration and higher opportunities for inter-ethnic contact do not translate into more positive attitudes towards immigrant groups, but rather into exclusionary attitudes and in a…”

“Lastly, regarding the place of residence, studies highlight the impact of local social and economic conditions on political attitudes (Enos, 2017).”

“…interactions (and exposure) are likely more relevant than full-fledged contact in real-life settings as residential (racial and ethnic) segregation continues to prevail across advanced democracies (Enos 2017; Maxwell 2019, 2020; Modai-Snir and Plaut 2021; Trounstine 2018; Zorlu and Lattens 2009).”

“Similar arguments can be made about the theoretical importance of proximity for understanding the diffusion of public opinion and political behavior (Enos, 2017).”

“However, even brief and casual encounters can impact political behavior 19,20 .”

“A large literature shows that voters adjust their expressed views in response to signals from political elites and their social environments (Enos, 2017; Fortunato & Stevenson, 2019; Huckfeldt and Sprague, 1995; Popkin, 1991).”

“The transformation of the media ecosystem, geographic sorting (Enos 2017), gerrymandering, and a dramatic increase in campaign expenditures (Keena 2024) have contributed to the rise of performative partisanship (Benson and Limbocker 2023; Keena and Knight-Finley 2019) and the “perpetual campaign”…”