Neighbourhood in Mind’s Eye: Mapping Resident Needs into Perceived Urban Space
Neighbourhoods are usually measured as administrative or geographic units, but residents experience them as subjectively bounded spaces. This talk walks through different methods of regioning, then examines what urban features are selectively incorporated into perceived neighbourhoods. In a same-area Copenhagen sample, 603 residents drew their primary neighbourhood on an online map. These polygons were linked to 2018 OpenStreetMap points of interest across seven categories: medical, education, food, grocery, worship, nature, and trees. Observed facility counts within each drawn neighbourhood were compared with area-adjusted expected counts using a Bayesian negative binomial multilevel model. Perceived neighbourhoods were enriched in nature, medical services, grocery facilities, and trees, but depleted in food-related and worship facilities; education showed no clear deviation. These results suggest that subjective neighbourhoods are not neutral slices of nearby space. Instead, residents’ mental boundaries appear to organise urban space around everyday needs, care infrastructure, and environmental affordances.