| The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the relationship between the neighborhood physical (built) environment and residents' social capital, and the related concepts of community collective efficacy and satisfaction. Two Chicago neighborhoods, the New Urbanist Bucktown and the modern suburb of Schaumburg, were compared. The comparison was based on the results of two cross-sectional phone surveys, a secondary analysis of resident interviews conducted by Andrews University, followed by the author's phone survey of 197 individuals from the original sample who had agreed to be further interviewed. The questionnaires for the phone surveys were based on existing measures of social capital, and the collective efficacy scale from the Chicago Neighborhoods Study. The Neighborhood Environment and Walkability Scale and several unstructured questions were the basis for the community satisfaction measure.;The results indicated that while the hypotheses for higher levels of collective efficacy and community satisfaction in a New Urbanist community were not upheld, Bucktown residents seemed to have higher levels of two forms of social capital in the study: Close neighborhood ties, and informal problem-solving. In Schaumburg, respondents viewed their neighbors as more supportive than Bucktown residents, another form of social capital. However, there was a positive association between residents' social capital and collective efficacy as expected, emphasizing the significance of building social capital for community informal social control and empowerment. The analysis of the responses to study's open-ended questions revealed important elements of residents' community satisfaction in both communities. It was found that community physical environment is an underestimated yet essential component in neighborhood quality of life. Overall, the study highlights the critical role of comprehensive community-building initiatives in community development, to change places as well as people for rehabilitation of public housing and revitalization of distressed inner-city neighborhoods. |
