15 - Measuring the influence of social capital and personal networks on transport disadvantage

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to study people's activities and transport disadvantage from the perspective of their own self-perceived barriers to mobility, and connected to this, their (in)ability to access personal networks and social support. The study uses a mixed-methods approach to social network analysis, which is applied in a case study in the City of Concepción, Chile. The quantitative section uses data about the respondents’ perceived barriers to perform activities, both related with the transport dimension and the activity itself. In addition, the analysis uses information about the spatiality of the respondents’ personal networks and social support they receive from those social contacts. The qualitative section uses data from in-depth interviews performed to a subsample of the same respondents. The results suggest that between 10% and 20% of the sample experience barriers both with respect to the social activities themselves and the transport services needed to connect with those activities. Journey distance is an important factor for the decay of social support of the respondents’ personal support networks. These results also occur in the context of the respondents’ adaptation processes with regards to their constraints, such as car unavailability, as the in-depth interviews suggest. This finding emphasizes the need for transport and social welfare policymakers to better understand the important role of transport and mobility in the maintenance of people's social support networks in the Chilean urban context.