Exit, Voice, & Loyalty

The concepts of exit, voice, and loyalty stem from our discussion on the "There Goes The Neighborhood" readings. The theory relating these three can be thought of as a loyalty continuum with exit and voice lying on opposing ends of this spectrum.

When loyalty to a community or neighborhood is low, exit is the likely response for those living there when things begin to go poorly. Alternatively, when loyalty is high, the voice reaction is typically evoked by community members when confronted by an adverse situation.

The voice response means that community members will take an active role in correcting the apparent problem. The exit response simply means that they will begin vacating the community to find homes elsewhere.