Spatially concentrated social capital of urban residents

TL;DR

This study reveals that residents of lower-income urban neighborhoods have more spatially concentrated social networks, which could influence urban segregation and inequality.

Contribution

It provides a large-scale analysis of the spatial structure of social capital across US cities using geolocalized Twitter data, highlighting income-related disparities.

Findings

Lower-income residents have more localized social networks.

Their social ties are more cohesive and supported nearby.

Patterns are consistent across most US metropolitan areas.

Abstract

Social connections that span across diverse urban neighborhoods can help individual prosperity by mobilizing social capital in cities. Yet, how the detailed spatial structure of social capital varies in lower- and higher-income urban neighborhoods is less understood. This paper demonstrates that the social capital measured on social networks 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 connections in the 50 largest metropolitan areas of the US using a large-scale geolocalized Twitter dataset. We then analyze the spatial dimension of individual social capital by the share of friends, closure, and share of supported ties within circles of short distance radiuses (1, 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 harming social circles of low-income residents.