Involvement in clubs or voluntary associations, social networks and activity generation: a path analysis

Abstract

Leisure activities have received increasing attention from travel behavior researchers over the past decade. However, these activities are often treated as a single category, neglecting their differences. Whereas most leisure activities are flexible, club activities are usually scheduled longer in advance and are more fixed in time, location and company. Hence, trip-generating properties of club activities are likely to differ from those of other leisure activities. As very little is known about involvement in clubs or voluntary associations in relation to trip generation, voluntary association activities deserve further research in relation to travel. Therefore, in this paper a path analysis is conducted, analyzing the relationships between participation in clubs or voluntary associations, trip frequencies, and social network characteristics. The analyses are based on data collected in 2011 in Eindhoven in the Netherlands in a survey among 516 respondents. The results show interesting relationships between the social context and involvement in clubs. They indicate that people become club members through their social networks, and frequent club activities increase social network size. Family oriented people were found to go less often to clubs. Club membership and the frequency of going to club activities were also found to be affected by socio-demographics, such as gender, age, education, work, presence of young children in the household and owning a season ticket for public transport.

A multilevel path analysis of social networks and social interaction in the neighbourhood

“…In a previous study, we also found that involvement in clubs or voluntary associations results in a larger social network (Van den Berg et al 2012). As clubs are often locally based, this may indirectly increase the frequency of contact with neighbors.…”

Tradeoffs between in- and out-of-residential neighborhood locations for discretionary activities and time use: do social contexts matter?

“…This is logical because maintaining or developing social relationships with more friends or acquaintances living in Beijing requires more joint activities with them. This result supports the argument made in other studies that social networks generate social activities and travel (e.g., Tillema et al, 2010;Van den Berg et al, 2012a;Lin and Wang, 2014). Table 2 shows that the number of family members or relatives living in Beijing contacted last week appears not to be a significant determinant of the choice of location for the activity.…”

“…First, the finding that more social contact with friends or acquaintances living in the same neighborhood leads to more in-neighborhood activities suggests that policy measures targeted toward improving neighborhoods to facilitate social contact between neighbors will help reduce motorized trips. Examples of such policies include those enhancing voluntary neighborhood associations or clubs, which may help individuals develop and maintain social networks with neighbors (Van den Berg et al, 2012a) and in turn increase in-neighborhood discretionary activities and reduce the need for motorized travel. Moreover, the impacts of neighborhood safety and social cohesion suggest that policies aimed at improving the social environment of neighborhoods may also act as an instrument to encourage inneighborhood activities and discourage motorized trips.…”

“…Discretionary activities are responsible for a substantial and growing portion of urban travel (Mokhtarian et al, 2006;Van den Berg et al, 2012a;Ohnmacht, 2009); yet, they have the most flexibility in terms of where, when and with whom they are performed compared to subsistence and maintenance activities (Kitamura et al, 1996;Mokhtarian et al, 2006). We use data from an activity-travel diary survey conducted in Beijing, China in 2013.…”

A Multilevel Path Analysis of Social Networks and Social Interaction in Neighbourhood

“…In a previous study we also found that involvement in clubs or voluntary associations results in a larger social network (Van den Berg et al 2012). As clubs are often locally based, this may indirectly increase the frequency of contact with neighbours.…”