Dimensions of Social Capital in Core Residential Neighbourhoods of Akure, Nigeria

Abstract

This study looked at the dimensions of social capital and strength of social capital in the core neighbourhoods of Akure, Nigeria. It also investigated if some physical attributes of the neighbourhood predictors of social capital.

Four specific residential neighbourhoods in the core of Akure were selected for the study, 532 questionnaires were successfully administered and analysed with factor analysis and categorical regression analysis. Social capital was considered to be high by majority (81.2%) of the respondents. Factor analyses suggest that social control and cohesion appears to be the strongest form of social capital in the neighbourhood (20.7%), followed by collective efficacy (19.4%) reciprocated exchanges (14.8%) of the dimensions of social capital. The regression analysis confirms a significant relationship between neighbourhood physical characteristics and social capital (sum of square = 54.036; df = 20; p 0.000). The results indicates that six variables of neighbourhood physical characteristics namely, waste disposal method (.004),neighbourhood open space (.001), source of water(.000), toilet type available and if shared (.005),how defined are compounds for each house (.000) and number of households in each house (.002) were significant predictors of social capital.The paper concludes that poor neighbourhoods should not only be described as neighbourhood with high concentration of physical poverty but also as neighbourhood with strong social resources in the form of social capital.

Keywords: Residential neighbourhoods, social capital, poverty