Defining Neighborhood, Analysis of Two Different Approaches: Expert-oriented Approach of Theorists and Perceptual Approach of Residents

The different offered definitions of “Neighborhood Unit” in various approaches and viewpoints by different specialized views, on the one hand; and excessive attention to expert-oriented and reduced viewpoints as well as neglecting residents’ perception of the neighborhood on the other hand necessitate providing a complete and exact definition of neighborhood which can cover all approaches and viewpoints. Therefore, this paper applied the content analysis research method – descriptive content analysis- to analyze the numerous important neighborhood definitions meticulously. It scrutinizes two different approaches, specialized views (expert-oriented) and the perceptual approach (resident-oriented) in order to extract the most appropriate and repeated indicators, and finally introduce a comprehensive definition of neighborhood according to these indicators. Result show significant differences exist between neighborhood characteristics according to the definitions given by experts, famous theories and perceptual understanding of residents. For instance the definitions of neighborhood center(s), land uses, boundaries of neighborhood and etc. were used to derive the final appropriate indicators obtained from both approaches. The indicators are: neighborhood boundaries including streets and traffic roads; natural elements and social distinctions such as racial or ethnical distinctions; neighborhood area as it is perceptible for residents (50-500 acres); neighborhood land use (providing daily and weekly needs, appropriate access); economic- social homogeneity (social class, and income level of residents, land value); social interaction (social relations and residents’ participation); and semantic and particular symbols of neighborhood (natural and historical characteristics and neighborhood meanings).