Moving to suburbia? Effects of residential mobility on community engagement

Abstract

Previous research has emphasized that residential mobility is a key factor to understand the social and institutional context that shapes local political dynamics, especially in processes of suburbanization of metropolitan regions. Recent work has already pointed out that local communities with higher rates of recent population growth show lower levels of turnout compared to others with significantly lower levels or even negative growth. However, due to both the aggregate nature of most available data and sample designs, no firm conclusions can be arrived at regarding the specific relationship between residential mobility and the individual and contextual determinants of social and political behavior. In this paper we explore the interaction between individual and contextual features to better understand the problems that suburbanization pose to local community engagement. We use data from a survey specifically designed to comply with the requirements of this kind of study. The sample was designed through strata that take into account the recent population growth of municipalities. Results show the relevance of accounting for both individual- and contextual-level variables to better understand the political and social dimensions of residential mobility and local suburbanization.