Mixing matters: why diverse social networks fuel mobility

New research by Neighbourly Lab provides deeper insight into the importance of diverse networks in fuelling upward mobility

Have you ever looked at the people in your life and thought about when you first connected? Perhaps they are classmates from school, friends from university, colleagues with whom you’re still in touch? Maybe you know your neighbours, or have friends from a local sports activity or from helping out at a local community event. These networks of personal and group-based relationships really matter.

We know that social connections play a vital role in combatting the deepening crises of social isolation, political polarisation and economic inequality. Social connections also drive our levels of social capital – as explored in Issue 1 of RSA Journal this year, the ongoing work that is being carried out by Professor Raj Chetty and Opportunity Insights concluded that children from disadvantaged backgrounds in the US tend to achieve higher incomes in adulthood when they grow up in communities that foster more friendships between high- and low-income individuals.

Facebook friends: UK vs US

Neighbourly Lab is a non-profit research and innovation organisation with the mission to create stronger, more connected communities. Inspired by the above-cited US data, and working in partnership with the RSA, BIT, Meta, Stripe Partners and researchers from Stanford and Opportunity Insights, we sought to explore whether similar patterns hold in the UK.

By looking at measures of social connection based on Facebook data for approximately 20 million UK residents (about 58% of the population aged 25–64) we estimated each person’s income, social connections and the impacts of friendships between people from different income groups. The UK study also included in-depth, place-based research led by Neighbourly Lab. We explored the experiences of people living in different parts of the UK, giving us a textured understanding of their social connections or lack thereof, and how this looked ‘in real life’.

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Neighbourhood watch

The data revealed that the US research also holds true in the UK – communities with higher rates of friendship between low- and high-income individuals have higher rates of upward mobility. Low-income children who grow up in the top 10% of the most economically connected local authorities in England earn 38% more a year on average (£5,100) as adults relative to low-income children in the bottom 10% of local authorities. We sought to understand why that was, what conditions were in place and how social capital was experienced by a diverse set of residents.

To do so, we travelled to15 locations across England – focusing on two neighbourhoods in each: Ealing in London, North Yorkshire, Birmingham and Southampton – to explore what was happening in areas of high or low connection. These pairs of neighbourhoods either had an abundance or deficit of social capital. The residents’ experiences were illuminating and, in some instances, promising, giving us examples of place-based settings where cross-economic friendships form.

Making place-based change

The research team identified the key settings that are conducive for making these place-based changes: sports, exercise and hobby groups, and the workplace. This supports the data from Facebook which tells us that most friendships form locally and in schools, while sports and hobby groups promote cross-class friendship among their members.

We also learnt that sports and hobby groups need to be accessible, affordable, close to home, designed to accommodate different needs and offer a welcoming environment for newcomers. Specificity is key to expanding who these settings reach; they are most successful when people are provided with a clear and purposeful hook to bring them together under a shared understanding of what their involvement entails. Multi-use spaces and other ways to support communities are valuable in nurturing cross-economic friendships.

Workplace settings also invite different conditions for successful mixing, particularly when there is an organisational culture that wants to invest in its place, as well as its people, fostering a culture of equality throughout the organisation. Cross-economic friendships in the workplace are also supported by people living nearby, opportunities for socialising in local places together and participating in organised sports and activities.

Rising to the mobility challenge

We now have a job to do: to figure out what works to foster social capital and, in particular, how this can support people experiencing disadvantage. There is some cause for optimism, reasons to believe that we can design and develop interventions that build people’s social capital and strengthen their social connections across lines of difference to support their economic mobility, and improve economic outcomes for a broader range of people in our communities.

The research team’s ambition is that decision makers draw on the insights to increase cross-economic friendships for people through these settings, so that more low-income children and families can benefit from higher rates of upward mobility. This will be a challenge, one including multiple actors in different roles. It will invite collaboration, vision, participatory design and changes to policies.

It is difficult, but not impossible. It is important.