Social Capital

Social Capital Theories of Activity and Mobility Behavior

Social sustainability is primarily composed of three components: human capital, well-being, and social capital (Woodcraft 2012). Evidence-based study of sustainability involves the measurement through use of sustainability indicators. In transportation, social sustainability has primarily involved human capital (e.g. accessibility to work opportunities) and well-being (e.g. equity). There has been limited work on indicators of social capital (SC) in transport which is the focus of this research program. The research program seeks to develop social capital theories of activity and travel behavior. The program seeks to develop proper measurement and modeling techniques to progress the use of social sustainability in evaluating and designing transportation systems as well as other sociotechnical systems.

Further study will propose to explore the theoretical significance of social capital on leisure activity behavior and residential choice. A social networks perspective provides values in understanding changes in the spatial distribution of social networks and activities. These efforts will lay foundational steps into developing social network-based activity-based modeling frameworks capable of predicting travel patterns under the adoption of disruptive technologies and analyzing socially-focused policy factors such as social isolation and social cohesion.

Leisure Activity Variety & Instrumental Social Capital

We propose a theory that leisure activity variety is an instrumental outcome and thus affected by instrumental social capital more than expressive social capital. The theory underlines two hypotheses that (1) social capital is an integral determinant of leisure activity participation, and (2) having access to greater instrumental support promotes greater leisure activity variety – an instrumental outcome. This theory was tested using a comprehensive list of different unique leisure activities collected from 1,275 survey respondents. To the authors’ knowledge, this refined and specially designed survey is the first in the transportation literature to use both a position generator and resource generator to measure social capital. Results from negative binomial regression models demonstrated that instrumental support had the largest influence on predicting activity variety outcome. The robustness of six instrumental support measures was assessed based on the variability of parameter estimates and model fit. Sensitivity testing affirmed the consideration that social capital is correlates with an individual’s activity participation. This study’s findings suggest that social capital can reduce estimation bias and unobserved heterogeneity across various socioeconomic attributes. As social capital has distinct impacts even among homogeneous demographic groups, transportation modelers can derive insights from social capital measures to build more socially and behaviorally realistic models.

Temporal Variation in Activity Variety Seeking

The extraordinary disruption caused by the spread of COVID-19 has prompted the need to better understand the changes in people’s activity and mobility behavior. Reduced leisure activity space due to public health interventions has changed people’s ability to participate in different activities. This paper examines the temporal influence of social capital, mobility, personalities, and demographics on leisure variety using samples collected in 2019 and 2020. Social capital constructs, specifically instrumental support, have substantial and significant effects on increasing leisure activity variety and remain temporally stable. This result supports the robustness and importance of social capital in activity variety, which further provides evidence for the valuable resources offered by one’s social network -- even under drastic changes and restrictions. Age, household size, and extraversion are among the factors that exhibit temporal instability. Model inference shows negative impact of the pandemic on activity variety, especially for people aged 60 or older.

Social Leisure Frequency & Expressive Social Capital

This study examines the effects of social capital on the increased frequency of leisure activity participation. It is hypothesized that leisure activity frequency is an expressive outcome of social capital which is used by people to maintain and strengthen their social connections. This research proposes three research questions to test the two dimensions of social capital on the leisure activity participation frequency outcome:

Do individuals with higher levels of expressive support participate in particular activities more often than others with lower levels of expressive support?
Are the activities performed more frequently by individuals with higher expressive support more social in nature?
Does instrumental support have no effect on activity frequency for social activities?

This study aims to answers those questions using insights gathered from a self-administered web-based survey designed specifically to test differences in social capital and its relevance in a leisure activity context. Across 20 activities types, individuals with higher levels of expressive support tended to participate more frequently in activities that are social in nature more often than others with lower levels of expressive support. Some higher affiliation activities (drinking and socializing, church attendance, and dining out) show insignificant or negative impact from expressive support which may be explained by the nature of the activity. Further study is warranted to carefully account for self-selection and non-selection processes in the participation of these activities. In contrast, instrumental support have mixed or no effects on increasing frequency of social activities.