Connected Places

Connected Places is an approach to boosting economic mobility and social cohesion by fostering social connections.

Our Connected Places intervention builds on the social connections research from the RSA and its partners. These studies demonstrate that connections between individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds are a key indicator of increased economic mobility.

The initiative is a partnership between the RSA and places to combine this cutting-edge research with deep community engagement. We support communities to increase the opportunities to mix across lines of difference and decrease the biases that prevent us from connecting by:

• deploying data and mapping to show where social capital is substantial and where it is under strain.
• convening regional stakeholders across every level of the system, to promote social connection in the places that need them most.
• developing the backbone supports, impact measures and shared resources to build a ‘Chamber of Connection’ for your region and sustain action at a neighbourhood level.

What is social capital, and why does it matter?

Social capital refers to the trust, networks, and shared values that bind communities together, fostering a sense of unity and cohesion. It includes:

The decline of social capital over recent decades has been linked with increased inequality, reduced civic participation and a lack of social trust (leading to increased polarisation). However, social capital has traditionally been hard to measure, making its economic and social impacts difficult to quantify.

Our groundbreaking Revealing Social Capital research project, developed in partnership with leading researchers and Meta, lets us map ‘social capital’ at a very local level. We can see where connections are strong, where they’re under strain, and what this means for people’s life chances, wellbeing, and local cohesion.

The most striking result, which holds in both the UK and the US, is that connections between people from high- and low-income households (a bridging capital called economic connectedness) are one of the strongest predictors of upward economic mobility, as well as wellbeing metrics such as trust, life satisfaction, and social support.

In the UK, children from low-income households who grow up in areas with many friendships between income groups earn more as adults, approximately £5,000 per year, compared to those growing up in areas with less social mixing.

RSA intervention

Revealing Social Capital

This work examines how social capital relates to social mobility and other life outcomes, such as health and education. It will allow researchers to map, interrogate, and understand social capital in a more comprehensive way than ever before in the UK.

Read the research

Link between economic connectedness and economic mobility

What makes a connected place?

Our research indicates that two factors influence the level of bridging capital and economic connectedness in place: exposure to people across lines of difference and bias (or homophily), which reduces the desire to connect outside of one’s closest communities. Exposure alone is not enough to build connections.

We have found that bias is often lowest in ‘third spaces,’ where a shared interest or goal enables connection, often through identity (such as faith), activity (sports, arts), or purpose (volunteering, civic engagement).

Our Connected Places work at a neighbourhood level to answer two questions:

1. In situations where there is high social exposure, how can we reduce bias?
2. Where there are deep bonds and low bias, how do we increase exposure?

Connected Places pilot programme

We are developing an international cohort of pilot ‘Connected Places’ programmes in areas around the UK and the US. We currently have projects in Ealing, Essex, Baltimore and Boston.

The Connected Places approach can be adapted to the unique character, ambitions, and priorities of each place. This set-up phase of work develops the data, organisational relationships and strategies for sustainable collective impact at a regional and neighbourhood level.

Outputs from the pilot

Sustaining impact beyond pilots

A key output of the collective impact strategy will be a stakeholder coalition for growing social capital across the region. With additional funding, this Connection Lab could provide backbone support, impact measurement, toolkits and resources to support the growth of social capital across the region.

The RSA is also developing a global community of practice to share research and practical knowledge, fostering social capital in local communities. Including support for:

• Policy and advocacy
• Measurement and evaluation
• Network building (global)
• Mobilising resources and funding
• RSA Fellowship

Get involved

Partner your place with the RSA and be part of a cohort of pilot locations at the cutting edge of developing practical and scalable approaches to building social capital.

Collaborate with the RSA and help fund a cohort of pilot places that explore how to effectively map and replenish social capital to enhance health and social mobility outcomes for residents. Contact our strategic partnerships team to find out more.

Explore our Social Connections work

Social Connections

Social Connections oversees a step-change in encouraging approaches and practices that value and commit to stewarding social capital.

Revealing Social Capital

We want to better understand how social connections between people affect the opportunities they have in their lives. We call this ‘social capital’.

Mapping Social Capital

Our Mapping Social Capital work looked at six billion UK Facebook friendships to see how connected people are across income levels.