Does Neighbourhood Design Impact Social Interactions Amongst Neighbours? Studying the Influence of Neighbourhood Built-form & Type on Socialization Among Neighbours in Canadian Cities

Urban planning has devoted significant effort to exploring the linkages between neighbourhood design and social interactions. With the increasing popularity of New Urbanism, the role New Urbanist design features play in promoting neighbourly socialization and strengthening communal bonds have become widely debated. This thesis contributes to the existing literature by researching how socialization differs between New Urbanist and traditional suburban neighbourhoods and whether the socialization difference, if any, results from differences in neighbourhood structure and design. This thesis uses a data set comprised of eight neighbourhoods - four of which are New Urbanist neighbourhoods and the other four are traditional suburban neighbourhoods. Using ordered probit regression modelling, the extent of socialization that stems from households’ demographic characteristics and the housing-level and neighbourhood-level physical design features is determined. The results indicate that socialization is more likely to be influenced by the amalgamated effect of neighbourhood type, rather than design features alone.