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Nonprofits for Cohesive Cities: Neighborhood Characteristics, Organizational Practices, and their Effects on Social ...

27/06/2023

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) play an important role in strengthening urban communities by bringing people together and linking citizens with institutional resources. In our study, we wanted to understand how NPOs' involvement in creating social and systemic relationships is influenced by the characteristics of the neighborhoods they operate in. Additionally, we examined how their internal practices, such as managerial approaches and democratic principles, affect their integration efforts.

Our analysis relied on survey data from the CLC-survey and administrative data. To assess the impact of neighborhoods on NPOs’ contributions to urban integration, we divided the city into 7,840 smaller areas, each characterized by factors like population size, income levels, the percentage of immigrant residents, and the density of organizations.
Our findings revealed that managerial approaches within NPOs are positively associated with systemic integration. On the other hand, organizational democracy is linked to social integration, which focuses on building connections among community members. Surprisingly, we did not find any significant relationship between neighborhood characteristics and NPOs' engagement in social and systemic integration.
By shedding light on the interactions between NPOs' practices, local neighborhoods, and their contributions to both social and systemic integration, our research adds to the understanding of urban social cohesion.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11266-023-00571-1

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