
Dr Antonio Silva
Principal Advisor
Our social capital – the quality of our relationships – shapes critical life outcomes, from the jobs we get to whether we end up in prison. Yet historically, policymakers have often overlooked social capital, mainly due to difficulties in measuring it and a lack of evidence-based solutions to boost it. BIT and the RSA, working with Stripe Partners and Neighbourly Lab and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, are working with Meta to map social connections using social media data to understand how they influence life opportunities.
This work builds on Raj Chetty and colleagues’ seminal research in the US. Their work found that growing up in neighbourhoods where friendships are formed among people from different economic backgrounds is crucial for social mobility. Our research focuses on exploring these connections in the UK.
A central goal of our research is to understand what makes certain communities successful at connecting people across different backgrounds. This will help us design policy interventions to strengthen connections in neighbourhoods that currently have less interaction between groups.
To gather these insights, we’re visiting ‘outlier’ neighbourhoods with unusually high or low connections across economic backgrounds, which are similar in most other ways. By comparing similar areas, we can understand what makes some communities better at building social connections than others, regardless of their economic or demographic makeup. We spent half a day in 14 neighbourhoods across the country. Here are a few initial insights from our visits.
From cities on the south coast to rural villages in Lincolnshire, we found the same kinds of meeting places in most neighbourhoods we visited: churches, community centres, libraries, and pubs. However, in areas with fewer connections across economic groups, these spaces were often closed when we visited. In contrast, in well-connected neighbourhoods, these places were open and run by volunteers. In Polegate near Eastbourne, a thriving community centre runs a members’ pub, bringing together nurses, local business owners, and everyone in between – all managed by local volunteers.
The layout of these spaces proved just as important. In Stone Cross – a neighbourhood near Polegate with fewer connections between groups – parents must queue to collect their children from school, leaving no space to stop and chat. The neighbourhood has a pub, community hall, and church all nearby, but busy roads make these spaces difficult to reach safely on foot.
Left: Fence outside a school in Stone Cross, Eastbourne. Right: Church and community centre in Stone Cross, Eastbourne
The number and variety of activities offered varied greatly between areas with different levels of social connection. Well-connected communities ran multiple events each day. These covered a wide range of interests, from drawing classes to group walks in the park, making them appealing to different people. As a case in point, a glance at these two Birmingham libraries’ notice boards shows how Stirchley buzzes with local activities while Bearwood’s calendar is noticeably sparser.
Left: Activity board in a library in Stirchley, Birmingham. Right: Activity board in a library in Bearwood, Birmingham
Active community hubs are valuable for any neighbourhood, but keeping them running often depends on volunteers. In the neighbourhoods we visited, retired residents were the backbone of these spaces – organising activities and keeping facilities open. In Collingham, a village of just 3,000 people, retired volunteers run an active library, publish a monthly magazine, and organise numerous activities – finding purpose and friendship through their service.
This reliance on volunteers often stems from the withdrawal of funding that previously paid for staff, leaving many community spaces entirely dependent on unpaid help. For example, in Ordsall near Manchester, the local library reduced its opening hours to just two days a week and scaled back its activities after losing its lottery funding. The reliance on retirees as the main volunteer force creates a particular challenge for neighbourhoods with younger populations, where fewer residents have the time to dedicate to these vital community roles.
Well-connected communities aren’t limited to those with many retirees. Some neighbourhoods build strong bonds across economic groups through unexpected means – including gentrification. In Stirchley, Birmingham, while the high street has attracted businesses that often herald displacement of locals – like sourdough bakeries and craft breweries – these spaces have actually helped bring different groups together, suggesting that neighbourhood change can have more nuanced effects than is often assumed. These businesses, mainly cooperatives born from local activism, are now reinvesting in the community by building affordable housing. Alongside them, a volunteer-run park café and well-attended library continue to bring together residents of all backgrounds.
“This isn’t like the yuppie neighbourhoods in London – people from all different backgrounds actually mix and come together here.” – Stirchley resident.
However, bringing new residents into established neighbourhoods doesn’t automatically create social connections across economic groups. Major housing developments can fail to foster these valuable bonds, even when deliberately placed in existing communities. Take MediaCityUK in Manchester, a major media and digital hub home to BBC and ITV studios, built on the former docks close to Ordsall. While it brought new housing for media employees next to the existing neighbourhood, these newcomers rarely mix with Ordsall’s tight-knit local community. Neighbourhoods like Ordsall show that physical proximity isn’t enough – communities need active gathering places that bring people from different economic backgrounds together.
Surprisingly, our research revealed that large green spaces often act as social dividers rather than connectors. While we commonly recognise how railway lines gave rise to the phrase “from the wrong side of the tracks” and that motorways divided inner cities in the 60s and 70s, parks’ role in separating communities is less discussed. This became apparent when we looked for neighbourhoods to visit – areas with large parks and woodland between them showed sharp divisions in both income and social connections, while areas without such spaces displayed more gradual transitions.
The suburbs of Bradford illustrate this pattern clearly: its northeastern suburbs, separated by several parks and woodland areas, show stark divisions between communities, while its southern suburbs, lacking such green spaces, show a more gradual social and economic blend. This pattern repeats across the country, particularly where wealthy suburbs meet inner city areas.
Economic connectedness across two Bradford neighbourhoods, shown on a colour gradient. Dark red indicates the highest levels of economic connection between different income groups, while light yellow shows the lowest levels of connection.
We will explore these insights further through detailed quantitative and ethnographic analysis, which we plan to publish in 2025. Beyond examining how social capital affects social mobility, we will investigate its impact on education, health outcomes, and crime rates. If you have questions, please contact Antonio Silva ([email protected]).
The work of BIT, the RSA, Stripe Partners and Neighbourly Lab on this project is funded by the Nuffield Foundation, but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily the Foundation. Contributions from Meta and Opportunity Insights are self-funded.
Principal Advisor
Advisor
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