The effect of an urban Cable Car on Social Capital: the case of TransMiCable in Bogotá, Colombia

Abstract

Background: Large informal or precarious settlements at cities' peripheries embody the inequalities in Latin America. The measurement and assessment of the social capital could help understand the social implication of transport interventions such as cable cars, intended to better connect peripheral settlements. The aim of this study was to measure changes in social capital (SC) for the purpose of evaluating the social impact of TransMiCable cable car, implemented in 2018 in the city of Bogotá, Colombia. Methodology: Urban Transformations and Health: The Case of TransMiCable in Bogotá is a natural experiment in which baseline and follow up household surveys were collected before and after the implementation of TransMiCable. To measure social capital (SC), SC latent classes were identified using latent transition analysis. We used six dimensions of SC that might be affected by an urban intervention: networking (structural and relational), trust (horizontal and vertical), and civic engagement (cooperation and empowerment). The number of classes was determined by optimizing low BIC and high entropy. To assess the effect of TransMiCable, we estimated the class transitions probabilities and compared them between intervention and control between baseline and follow-up. Results: We followed 1679 individuals, 825 (49.1%) resided in the intervention area, and 854 (50.9%) resided in the control area. No differences were observed between intervention and control groups regarding the distribution of the classes per each SC construct at baseline. We found three SC latent classes: 1) Predominantly bonding -higher tendency to establish networks and trust in their families. 2) Predominantly bridging -moderate tendency to trust in friends and neighbors 3) Predominantly linking - higher tendency to trust in governmental organizations, establish networks with them and, higher civic engagement to cooperate in infrastructure and transport problems. The odds of transitioning from predominantly bonding class to predominantly bridging class were 3.34 times higher in the intervention group than in the control (95% CI 2.43-4.62). The odds of transitioning from predominantly bridging and predominantly linking to predominantly bonding was 73% and 66% lower respectively in the intervention as compared to the control group (OR:0.27 95% CI:0.19-0.38 and 0.34 95% CI:0.28-0.71]. This suggests that TransMiCable increased the odds of belonging to a class mainly characterized by having a higher tendency to trust in friends and neighbors as compared to the control group. Discussion: The results of this study highlight that the TransMiCable urban transformation facilitated interactions among people and relations within communities, contributing to building bridging social capital. The predominance of the transitions to the bridging SC class uncovers the community engagement and participation as a relevant social outcome from the urban transformation.