Can We Build Walkable Environments to Support Social Capital? Towards a Spatial Understanding of Social Capital; a Scoping Review

Paloma Morales-Flores and Carlos Marmolejo-Duarte
Additional contact information
Paloma Morales-Flores: Department of Architectural Technology, Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Carlos Marmolejo-Duarte: Center of Land Policy and Valuations, Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 08028 Barcelona, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-15

Abstract: Empirical evidence suggests that it is possible to socially renew neighbourhoods through the formation of social capital (SC) as an effect of walking. The characteristics of the built environment that influence walkability and SC have been relatively well established by previous research, but contrasts remain. Therefore, this document seeks to investigate the relationship between SC and walkability, through a Scoping Review of empirical studies published in indexed journals in the Web of Science and Scopus. The findings indicate that the formation of SC as an effect of walking is associated with land use and the design of neighbourhood facilities; the provision of urban furniture (benches) and green spaces; and that the design and configuration of the neighbourhoods affects SC even more than the excess density. In addition, the methodological strategies used to arrive at these results were reviewed. The conclusions suggest the need to study this issue from an updated perspective, where new neighbourhood interaction systems can be tracked (that provide new indicators), using advanced tools and technologies that help streamline and make measurements more objective.

Keywords: social capital; walkability; pedestrian environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/13259/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/13259/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:23:p:13259-:d:691927

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().