Streets Apart: Does Social Capital Vary with Neighbourhood Design?

Abstract

While neighbourhood differences in social capital have been mapped, few empirical studies have considered the nexus between specific physical characteristics of communities and social capital. In this study we hypothesised that social capital would be positively associated with a more walkable street network design, but inversely associated with negative experiences and perceptions of neighbourhood environments. Data was gathered through a random cross-sectional telephone survey of adults (n = 339) from three suburbs with differing street network design. Although there was some relationship between street network layout and social capital, this was not always as hypothesised by previous studies. Perceived incivilities, lower levels of trust and support were among factors that may have countered some of the positive influences of a walkable street network design on social capital. Overall, our findings suggest that the built environment may influence neighbourhood social capital at both a real and perceived level. While the actual presence and type of facilities, neighbourhood design and walkability may impact on social capital formation and maintenance, so too can perceptions of the physical and social environment. Understanding the complex intertwining of physical neighbourhood features, perceptions and social dynamics is relevant to growing public policy interest in strengthening social capital for enhanced community wellbeing.

Neighborhood Built Environments Affecting Social Capital and Social Sustainability in Seoul, Korea

“…Several organizations have suggested built environment as one of the key factors in achieving social sustainability. Literature on the relationship between neighborhood built environment and social sustainability focuses on key concepts in environmental design, such as a sense of place [41], equitable access to fundamental services, decent housing [10] and amenities [34]. Meeting places [42], a mix of housing types [43] and a mix of land use [44][45][46] are also suggested to be related to social sustainability.…”

“…Furthermore, because the physical ability and psychological accessibility of individuals vary, environment factors can be perceived divergently by different people. Thus, it can be compelling to analyze accessibility to public facilities or public open spaces as the perceived environment [41,68,71,75]. A total of six variables comprise two latent variables and appear to be reliable (Table 4).…”

“…It has been emphasized that this is related to social capital or social sustainability [44,45,47,51,53,65]. The second variable is the characteristics of residential areas, where an area with a high proportion of single-family houses and row/multi-family houses, narrow roads and many intersections (small blocks) can be interpreted as similar to a neighborhood type [41,50,71,73]. …”

The effect of social capital on knowledge creation in Petrochemical Industry

“…In addition, organizations must have inside organizational relationships to overcome to any unwanted uncertainties (Carey & Lawson, 2011). Social capital is one the most important components of any organization, which could help deliver the necessary knowledge (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998;Wood et al, 2012).…”

The essence of being connected: the lived experience of mothers with young children in newer residential areas

“…At the same time, in newer residential areas there is often a lag in the establishment of services and community groups that enable families with young children to interact and foster support with other families (Sneddon & Haynes, 2003). Even in older neighbourhoods, opportunities to interact can vary markedly, and are influenced by the social and built environment, along with service output provided by government and community agencies (Wood, Giles-Corti, & Bulsara, 2012). In addition, societal changes such as work mobility and scattered family networks have eroded many traditional support systems available.…”