Comparing Communities: The Cultural Characteristics of Ethnic Social Capital

Abstract

Social capital includes access to resources based on social networks, similar to how economic capital is access to fiscal resources. We explore ethnic social capital as a variant of social capital that includes the social resources that are available to a person as a result of being a member of an ethnic and cultural network. This study identifies the way that ethnic social capital is important for understanding the resilience of ethnic minority youth in the context of inequality including living in impoverished and high-crime neighborhoods. This study examines social capital in 239 males and females aged 14 to 22 years from a racially and ethnically diverse urban community with neighborhoods impacted by high levels of crime in the northeast United States. Compared with results from a racially homogeneous (non-Hispanic White) population living in an urban area of the Midwest, the diverse sample demonstrated different aspects of social capital that are highly correlated with the cultural value of collectivism. Specifically, the diverse sample showed significantly higher participation in their community and reaching out to support others. The sample in the Midwest, demonstrated greater feelings of safety in the community, greater satisfaction with their position in life, and greater ability to ask others for help. Both samples showed an equal level of tolerance for diversity. Results are discussed in terms of examining the cultural manifestations of ethnic social capital and resilience with ethnic minority populations.

Perception of Health and Well-being Among the Chinese Immigrant Population in Seville (Spain): Does Territorial Concentration Matter?

“…In high Chinese concentration districts with a high socioeconomic status, where there is less presence of other ethnic minorities, the cultural differences in the Chinese population make them stand out, mainly in the different way they are treated by the rest of the population. In more depressed districts and those with a greater concentration of different ethnic groups, cultural differences are relegated to the background and the differences in economic level and nationality are more to the forefront (Pearrow, Sander, and Jones 2019).…”

Not All Social Capital Is Equal: Conceptualizing Social Capital Differences in Cities

“…Many scholars focus their research on the outcomes of SC such as lifestyle or health effects (e.g., [28,29]), schooling outcomes, education (e.g., [30] and, increasingly, resilience [10] However, the qualitative differences in social capital of different groups remain underresearched. One major theoretical difficulty is the vagueness of the concept of social capital, especially regarding bridging and linking SC.…”

“…Generalized norms, togetherness, everyday sociability, volunteerism [29]; adoption of cultural norms [31]; reciprocity norms [32]; perceptions of mutual concern [32]; socially favorable environment [33]; prosocial norms [34]; community sentiment and cohesion [35] Trust/trustworthiness [9,11,[27][28][29]32,[35][36][37][38] Safety/security [10,31,35,38], e.g., feel safe walking after dark, allow someone in your home if their car breaks down, area has safe reputation [10] Life quality/value of life [28,35] Self-confidence/dignity [31], e.g., feel valued by society [10], satisfied with life meaning [10] Sense of belonging/identity [33,39]; community feels like home [10] Acceptance of differences [28]; tolerance for diversity [10], e.g., multiculturalism make things better, enjoying living among different lifestyles, feel free to disagree with others [10]…”

“…Socioeconomic heterogeneity is especially high in cities, leading to structural inequalities between high-poverty and affluent urban areas [10]. In consequence, it is apparent that differences exist in the ways that SC benefits some communities (ibid.).…”

“…Simultaneously, irrelevant studies were excluded from the analysis and data gaps were identified. From the remaining 30 studies [1,[8][9][10][11]20,, passages discussing the character of SC of one or more social groups that were found to be relevant for qualitative analysis were extracted from each eligible study. The content of the collected studies was analyzed qualitatively using a simple coding scheme [51].…”