Hallman′s in-depth study begins with the basic definition that a neighbourhood is both a physical place and a social community. Neighbourhoods are analysed as: personal arenas (where individuals perform certain classes of action, e.g. shopping); social communities (where individuals work together in groups and take part in some form of collective life); physical places (where certain amenities are, e.g. houses and hospitals which give an area a cohesiveness as a whole); political communities (of varying degrees of intensity); and as little economies (where people buy houses, rent houses, employ each other etc).