Social Class, Social Capital and Residential Mobility in China

CITATION

Li, L. (2017) Social Class, Social Capital and Residential Mobility in China, Social Indicators Research, 132(3), pp.1117-1129

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ABSTRACT
To understand the influence of social capital (the size of local supportive
networks and generalized trust) in facilitating success across societies varying in residential
mobility, the data of 16,253 participants from 29 provinces/municipalities in China
were examined. For the role of local supportive networks, the results showed that people
with more social capital were better off (in terms of current income, social mobility from
5 years ago and social mobility from teenage) than those with less social capital in more
residentially mobile societies whereas social capital was a weaker predictor of success in
less residentially mobile societies. For generalized trust, the results showed that the positive
role of generalized trust in promoting success was less sensitive to the influence of
societal residential mobility. These findings suggest that expansion of local supportive
networks may be more important in facilitating success in more residentially mobile
societies than in less residentially mobile societies.


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