Sam Cole

PhD Title:

Collective efficacy in micro-places: Exploring the perception and enforcement of moral rules in neighbourhood settings (2016-2021)

Abstract: 

This thesis aims to contribute theoretically, methodologically, and empirically to the study of collective efficacy theory when used as a measure of moral rules and their level of enforcement in neighbourhood settings. The first part of the thesis explores how the concept of collective efficacy has been developed in socio-spatial criminological research, bridging the theoretical gap between Sampson et al.’s (1997) original measure of ‘contextual causality’ to one which has been reappraised as a micro-level explanation for crime within Situational Action Theory. Observing the concept of collective efficacy to be a highly localised social process, chapter 3 then explores theoretically how both physical and social features of settings may shape collective efficacy’s explanatory effect on crime in microplaces. Chapter 4 then focusses on the role and relevance of neighbourhood guardians in perceiving and enforcing neighbourhood collective efficacy across different settings – both within and outside of the home neighbourhood.

In order to answer assumptions as to how setting moral rules can be both perceived and enforced by guardians across settings, the second part of the thesis sets out the rationale and results of the Peterborough Neighbourhood Guardians Study (PNGS), conducted in 2019. The PNGS interviewed 92 participants from a cluster of high collective efficacy neighbourhoods in Peterborough, UK. An adapted Space-Time Budget methodology was developed and deployed in order to explore whether participants could perceive changes in neighbourhood collective efficacy across settings encountered as part of their routine activity patterns. Exploratory analysis of STB interview data found that (i) variation in setting moral rules were perceptible to participants; and (ii) that these perceptions were influential in shaping individual willingness to intervene in settings. Given that the PNGS 2019 represents the first application of the STB methodology to guardianship research, the thesis concludes by offering methodological reflections on the use of the method in this context.