Social differences bridged

Full description

This outcome is about how a sense of positive connection can be developed with people who are outside our immediate social circle or from whom we feel socially divided. These people might be like or unlike us. They might be people we know and who are like us in the broader context, but from whom we have some social distance. An example would be people who are members of a different social group to us within our broader cultural group. People might also be unlike us because they come from a different culture or age group or social class. The connectedness between people who feel socially different from each other in some way is often referred to as ‘bridging social capital’.

Theory underpinning this outcome

Social bridging is the building of relationships between people who have contrasting social identities but have common interests or goals (Pelling and High 2005). Bridging social capital seeks to create connections between people who are unalike in regards to socioeconomic or other characteristics (Villalonga-Olives, and Kawachi, 2015) via activities such as voluntary associations, political activities or religious participation. Communities with low levels of Bridging capital may lack the social relationships that foster a sense of trust and loyalty towards social institutions (Oxford, 2014). Communities with high level of bridging capital may “achieve strong political influence through the sociodemographic and socioeconomic diversity of its social networks” (Kim, Subramanian, and Kawachi, 2006., p116)

The bridging of differences between groups is important as it can build trust. For example, people who interacted with those of a different religion have been shown to become more welcoming of those with a different religion or no religion. (Campbell and Putnam, 2011). The bridging of social differences in communities has been linked to health improvements via greater social support and can lead to greater civic involvement as the links and trust that bridging fosters can give diverse communities the ability to voice their concerns in a coordinated way (Villalonga-Olives and Kawachi, 2015).

Evidence that this outcome occurs

Bringing different ethnic or cultural groups together to engage in mural painting was shown to promote interactions and connections which resulted in the development of bridging social capital. (Putnam, 2000)

Women from diverse backgrounds who took part in a screen-printing project increased their understanding of each other, overcame language barriers, found common needs and aspirations, friendships and a sense of community. (Henry 1990). Through the project individuals and groups which had conflict with each other in the past, were able to come and work together (Mahtani 1996)