Neighbourhood Social Capital and Residential Mobility

This chapter reports findings from research in the Netherlands that links the change in neighbourhood social capital between 2002 and 2006 with resident’s moving intentions and their actual mobility outcomes. The underlying hypothesis is that those who live in a neighbourhood with high levels of macro level social capital are better off than others, even when they themselves do not have many actual social ties themselves. If neighbourhoods with high levels of macro social capital are good for you, than it can be hypothesised that those living in neighbourhoods that lack of macro level social capital are more likely to develop an intention to leave their neighbourhood and act on this desire. Using data from the Netherlands, the chapter shows that low and decreasing neighbourhood social capital stimulates moving intentions and actual moving behaviour. It is suggested that to get a better understanding of the interactions between moving intentions, moving behaviour and social capital, future work should inquire more deeply into the conditions which cause social capital in neighbourhoods to change.