Social Capital, Neighbourhood Attachment and Participation in Distressed Urban Areas. A Case Study in The Hague and Utrecht, the Netherlands

During the last decade, academic interest in residents' participation in maintaining the quality of life in distressed urban areas has risen. Many articles seeking to explain why people participate relate the social networks dimension of social capital to participation. However, according to Putnam's definition of social capital, not only social networks, but also norms and trust give people the tools they need for participation. Other authors concentrate on the relationship between neighbourhood attachment and participation. However, an empirical analysis in which both factors are combined is lacking. This paper describes the combined effect of social capital together with neighbourhood attachment in explaining participation. The findings show that participation is greater for residents with social networks in the neighbourhood, who reject deviant behaviour, and have a stronger neighbourhood attachment. Trust in authorities was not found to have any statistically significant impact on participation. The conclusions underline the theoretical assumption that social capital and neighbourhood attachment form a useful pair of concepts in explaining participation, because they focus not only on what people have, but also on their mindsets.