{"title":"Is social capital higher in areas with a higher density of historic assets? Analyses of 11,112 adults living in England.","authors":"H W Mak, E Gallou, D Fancourt","doi":"10.1177/17579139221145609","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aims: </strong>Previous evidence suggests that engagement with heritage such as visiting heritage sites provides benefits for people's mental and social wellbeing, and helps to establish social capital. However, far less is known about whether living in areas of historic built environment also helps build social capital. Furthermore, it remains unclear how the association between historic built environment and social capital may vary across heritage engagement frequency and areas of deprivation levels. This study was therefore designed to explore the cross-sectional relationship between historic built environment and social capital.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Analysis was based on three datasets: Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study Waves 5 (2013/2015) and 6 (2014/2016), 2019 National Heritage List for England, and 2015 English Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). Ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions were applied to estimate the relationships between historic built environment (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, and registered parks and gardens) and social capital (personal relationships, social network support, civic engagement, and trust and cooperative norms).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found that people living in places with greater historic built environment experienced higher levels of personal relationships, social network support, and civic engagement. However, these associations were attenuated once rurality was adjusted. Individuals living in areas of greater levels of historic built environment displayed higher levels of trust and cooperative norms, even after adjusting for all relevant covariates. Heritage engagement frequency was found to moderate the association between historic built environment and personal relationships. Similarly, IMD was also found to moderate the association between historic built environment and trust and cooperative norms.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>These findings highlight the importance of neighbourhood environment in building social capital in communities. Particularly, areas with heritage assets may provide both socially inviting and aesthetically pleasing environments that could help strengthen community and restore pride in place.</p>","PeriodicalId":47256,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Public Health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11308256/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Perspectives in Public Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17579139221145609","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/2/12 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Aims: Previous evidence suggests that engagement with heritage such as visiting heritage sites provides benefits for people's mental and social wellbeing, and helps to establish social capital. However, far less is known about whether living in areas of historic built environment also helps build social capital. Furthermore, it remains unclear how the association between historic built environment and social capital may vary across heritage engagement frequency and areas of deprivation levels. This study was therefore designed to explore the cross-sectional relationship between historic built environment and social capital.
Methods: Analysis was based on three datasets: Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study Waves 5 (2013/2015) and 6 (2014/2016), 2019 National Heritage List for England, and 2015 English Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). Ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions were applied to estimate the relationships between historic built environment (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, and registered parks and gardens) and social capital (personal relationships, social network support, civic engagement, and trust and cooperative norms).
Results: We found that people living in places with greater historic built environment experienced higher levels of personal relationships, social network support, and civic engagement. However, these associations were attenuated once rurality was adjusted. Individuals living in areas of greater levels of historic built environment displayed higher levels of trust and cooperative norms, even after adjusting for all relevant covariates. Heritage engagement frequency was found to moderate the association between historic built environment and personal relationships. Similarly, IMD was also found to moderate the association between historic built environment and trust and cooperative norms.
Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of neighbourhood environment in building social capital in communities. Particularly, areas with heritage assets may provide both socially inviting and aesthetically pleasing environments that could help strengthen community and restore pride in place.
期刊介绍:
Perspectives in Public Health is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed journal. It is practice orientated and features current topics and opinions; news and views on current health issues; case studies; book reviews; letters to the Editor; as well as updates on the Society"s work. The journal also commissions articles for themed issues and publishes original peer-reviewed articles. Perspectives in Public Health"s primary aim is to be an invaluable resource for the Society"s members, who are health-promoting professionals from many disciplines, including environmental health, health protection, health and safety, food safety and nutrition, building and engineering, primary care, academia and government.