Stone Inequality & Social Policy Seminar: Jackelyn Hwang

Changing Faces, Changing Spaces: A New Look at Neighborhoods and Social Control

Jackelyn Hwang, Associate Professor of Sociology, Stanford University

Abstract: Over the last two decades, the socioeconomic and ethnoracial compositions of neighborhoods and cities across the U.S. have changed at an unprecedented pace, albeit unevenly. These changes raise questions around the consequences for residents’ well-being, the social fabric of neighborhoods, broader patterns of segregation, and ultimately inequality. This talk showcases research that leverages novel large-scale measures of physical neighborhood conditions derived from street-level visual data and computer vision models to explore the changing social dynamics of neighborhoods. I present findings from two empirical studies that explore the conditions under which distinct forms of social control emerge. Findings reveal the racialized nature of these dynamics. Drawing on these findings and other work, this talk considers the implications of changing neighborhoods and cities for urban sociological theory and racial and spatial inequality. I conclude with a discussion of how new ways of looking at neighborhoods can advance research on neighborhood effects. 

Jackelyn Hwang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Changing Cities Research Lab. Jackelyn’s main research interests are in the fields of urban sociology, race and ethnicity, immigration, and inequality. In particular, her research uses innovative data, measures, and methods to answer: how do neighborhood-level dynamics that are typically racialized drive changes in US residential segregation? Her projects focus on how residential sorting mechanisms shape how gentrification unfolds over time and space, the consequences of gentrification on residential displacement, and developing data and measurement infrastructures for improving measures of gentrification, including developing automated methods using computer vision to measure visible neighborhood conditions and their changes over time from Google Street View imagery. By improving our understanding of urban change and segregation, her work aims to advance policy solutions that promote racial equity as cities change. Jackelyn received her BAS in Sociology and Mathematics from Stanford University and her PhD in Sociology and Social Policy from Harvard University. After completing her PhD, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. Her research has been supported by the American Sociological Association, the Joint Center for Housing Studies, the National Science Foundation, among others. Her work has appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, City & Community, Demography, Social Forces, Sociological Methods and Research, Sociological Methodology, and Urban Affairs Review, and other academic journals.