IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirb/v50y2023i4p1072-1086.html

Income-related spatial concentration of individual social capital in cities

Author

Listed:
  • à dám J Kovács
  • Sándor Juhász
  • Eszter Bokányi
  • Balázs Lengyel

Abstract

Social connections that span across diverse urban neighborhoods can support prosperity by mobilizing social capital. However, there is limited evidence on the spatial structure of individual social capital inside cities. This paper demonstrates that social capital measured by online social connections is spatially more concentrated for residents of lower-income neighborhoods than for residents of higher-income neighborhoods. We map the micro-geography of individual online social networks in the 50 largest metropolitan areas of the United States using a large-scale geolocalized Twitter dataset. We analyze the spatial dimension of individual social capital by the share of friends, closed triangles, and share of supported ties within circles of short distance radii (1, 3, 5, and 10 km) around users’ home location. We compare residents from below-median income neighborhoods with above-median income neighborhoods, and find that users living in relatively poorer neighborhoods have a significantly higher share of connections in close proximity. Moreover, their network is more cohesive and supported within a short distance from their home. These patterns prevail across the 50 largest US metropolitan areas with only a few exceptions. The found disparities in the micro-geographic concentration of social capital can feed segregation and income inequality within cities constraining social circles of low-income residents.

Suggested Citation

  • à dám J Kovács & Sándor Juhász & Eszter Bokányi & Balázs Lengyel, 2023. "Income-related spatial concentration of individual social capital in cities," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(4), pages 1072-1086, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:50:y:2023:i:4:p:1072-1086
    DOI: 10.1177/23998083221120663
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23998083221120663
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/23998083221120663?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bailey, Michael & Farrell, Patrick & Kuchler, Theresa & Stroebel, Johannes, 2020. "Social connectedness in urban areas," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    2. Gergő Tóth & Johannes Wachs & Riccardo Clemente & Ákos Jakobi & Bence Ságvári & János Kertész & Balázs Lengyel, 2021. "Inequality is rising where social network segregation interacts with urban topology," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. repec:plo:pone00:0115545 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Hardman, Anna & Ioannides, Yannis M., 2004. "Neighbors' income distribution: economic segregation and mixing in US urban neighborhoods," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 368-382, December.
    5. Lambiotte, Renaud & Blondel, Vincent D. & de Kerchove, Cristobald & Huens, Etienne & Prieur, Christophe & Smoreda, Zbigniew & Van Dooren, Paul, 2008. "Geographical dispersal of mobile communication networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 387(21), pages 5317-5325.
    6. Mark Granovetter, 2005. "The Impact of Social Structure on Economic Outcomes," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 33-50, Winter.
    7. Eszter Bokányi & Dániel Kondor & László Dobos & Tamás Sebők & József Stéger & István Csabai & Gábor Vattay, 2016. "Race, religion and the city: twitter word frequency patterns reveal dominant demographic dimensions in the United States," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Toriqul Bashar & Glen Bramley, 2019. "Social capital and neighbourhood cooperation: Implications for development of the urban poor in LDCs," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(13), pages 2727-2745, October.
    9. Matthew O. Jackson & Tomas Rodriguez-Barraquer & Xu Tan, 2012. "Social Capital and Social Quilts: Network Patterns of Favor Exchange," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(5), pages 1857-1897, August.
    10. Santi Phithakkitnukoon & Zbigniew Smoreda & Patrick Olivier, 2012. "Socio-Geography of Human Mobility: A Study Using Longitudinal Mobile Phone Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(6), pages 1-9, June.
    11. Christopher C. Liu & Matt Marx, 2020. "Micro-geography: a fundamental organizing attribute," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(8), pages 837-841, September.
    12. Éva Huszti & Fruzsina Albert & Adrienn Csizmady & Ilona Nagy & Beáta Dávid, 2021. "When Spatial Dimension Matters: Comparing Personal Network Characteristics in Different Segregated Areas," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 375-387.
    13. Éva Huszti & Fruzsina Albert & Adrienn Csizmady & Ilona Nagy & Beáta Dávid, 2021. "When Spatial Dimension Matters: Comparing Personal Network Characteristics in Different Segregated Areas," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 375-387.
    14. Eduardo Marques, 2015. "Urban Poverty, Segregation and Social Networks in São Paulo and Salvador, Brazil," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(6), pages 1067-1083, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Przemyslaw A Grabowicz & José J Ramasco & Bruno Gonçalves & Víctor M Eguíluz, 2014. "Entangling Mobility and Interactions in Social Media," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(3), pages 1-12, March.
    2. Claire Bidart & Marion Maisonobe & Gil Viry, 2022. "Analysing Personal Networks in Geographical Space Beyond the Question of Distance," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(3), pages 233-247.
    3. Murray, Cameron K. & Frijters, Paul, 2015. "Clean Money in a Dirty System: Relationship Networks and Land Rezoning in Queensland," IZA Discussion Papers 9028, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Oliver Rehbein & Simon Rother, 2020. "The Role of Social Networks in Bank Lending," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 033, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    5. Miranda J. Lubbers, 2021. "In Good Company? Personal Relationships, Network Embeddedness, and Social Inclusion," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 203-210.
    6. Stefano Guarino & Enrico Mastrostefano & Massimo Bernaschi & Alessandro Celestini & Marco Cianfriglia & Davide Torre & Lena Rebecca Zastrow, 2021. "Inferring Urban Social Networks from Publicly Available Data," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-45, April.
    7. Bailey, Michael & Gupta, Abhinav & Hillenbrand, Sebastian & Kuchler, Theresa & Richmond, Robert & Stroebel, Johannes, 2021. "International trade and social connectedness," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    8. Wang, Xi & Pei, Tao & Song, Ci & Chen, Jie & Shu, Hua & Liu, Yaxi & Guo, Sihui & Chen, Xiao, 2023. "How does socioeconomic status influence social relations? A perspective from mobile phone data," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 615(C).
    9. Heath Henderson & Arnob Alam, 2022. "The structure of risk-sharing networks," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 853-886, February.
    10. María Paz Espinosa & Jaromír Kovárík & Sofía Ruíz-Palazuelos, 2021. "Are close-knit networks good for employment?," Working Papers 21.06, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    11. Traag, V.A. & Quax, R. & Sloot, P.M.A., 2017. "Modelling the distance impedance of protest attendance," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 468(C), pages 171-182.
    12. Murray, Cameron K. & Frijters, Paul, 2016. "Clean money, dirty system: Connected landowners capture beneficial land rezoning," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 99-114.
    13. Kong, Dongmin & Pan, Yue & Tian, Gary Gang & Zhang, Pengdong, 2020. "CEOs' hometown connections and access to trade credit: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    14. Francesco Andreoli & Eugenio Peluso, 2016. "So close yet so unequal: Reconsidering spatial inequality in U.S. cities," Working Papers 21/2016, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    15. Katarzyna Growiec & Jakub Growiec & Bogumił Kamiński, 2017. "Social Network Structure and The Trade-Off Between Social Utility and Economic Performance," KAE Working Papers 2017-026, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis.
    16. Buechel, Berno & Krähenmann, Philemon, 2022. "Fixed price equilibria on peer‐to‐peer platforms: Lessons from time‐based currencies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 335-358.
    17. Cheshire, Paul, 2009. "Policies for mixed communities: faith-based displacement activity?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 30783, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Di Ciommo, Floridea & Comendador, Julio & López-Lambas, María Eugenia & Cherchi, Elisabetta & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2014. "Exploring the role of social capital influence variables on travel behaviour," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 46-55.
    19. Lars Kunze & Nicolai Suppa, 2014. "Bowling Alone or Bowling at All? The Effect of Unemployment on Social Participation," Ruhr Economic Papers 0510, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    20. Muscillo, Alessio & Pin, Paolo & Razzolini, Tiziano & Serti, Francesco, 2018. "Does "Network Closure" Beef up Import Premium?," IZA Discussion Papers 12036, IZA Network @ LISER.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:50:y:2023:i:4:p:1072-1086. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.