Open AccessNew City = New Friends? The Restructuring of Social Resources after Relocation
Author(s) -
Sören Petermann,
Natascha Nisic
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
comparative population studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.419
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1869-8999
pISSN - 1869-8980
DOI - 10.12765/cpos-2013-08
Subject(s) - relocation , social capital , social mobility , residence , restructuring , demographic economics , devaluation , capital (architecture) , economics , economic geography , monetary economics , geography , sociology , finance , social science , archaeology , computer science , exchange rate , programming language
Despite the significance of spatially proximate social contacts, there is little evidence about the effects of residential mobility on the social capital available to an individual. Based on theoretical considerations of the accumulation process of social capital after relocation, we derive hypotheses about the consequences of residential mobility on social capital. Firstly, we expect a partial devaluation of social capital in the origin region after the move and compensatory investments in social capital at the new location. Secondly, we assume that social capital increases with the length of residence and distinguish accumulation and consolidation phases. Multivariate analysis based on survey data yields the expected consequences of mobility. Movers and native residents possess an equal amount of social capital; however, the composition of social capital differs between the two groups. Additionally, we decompose the length of residence into several time intervals to provide evidence for both the constituting and consolidating phases in the creation of social capital.