Saturday, October 9, 2010

Do You Know Your Neighbors?

     Above is a picture we took of the new neighborhood notice the SUPER busy street with lots and lots of cars....                                    

To assess the social capital of suburban neighborhoods, we interviewed 20 houses in two neighborhoods in Cary, North Carolina.  The first was a newly built neighborhood of town homes, the second, a neighborhood of houses built in the 90's.

We asked each house these three questions:

1) Do you know the names of both your next-door neighbors?
2) About how often have you had them over to your house?  (within the past year or two)
3) How often (on average) does you or your family carpool with others during the week?

Check out some of our results:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLHmH-ChZNI

 In the newer neighborhood:

70% know at least one of their neighbors' names.

50% had never had their neighbor over to their house.

70% never carpool during the week.

In the older neighborhood:

100% know the names of both their neighbors.

50% have their neighbors over more than 5 times a year.

50% carpool everyday.


We found that in the newer neighborhood of town homes, neighbors really did not know each other, and social capital was very low.  There was no one outside the houses, and cars were locked inside garages.  The people who came to the door were mainly young single adults, or more elderly men.  In the older, more established neighborhood, kids were playing in the streets while parents sat on front porches.  Most people claimed to carpool, and many regularly had neighbors over for dinner.  Social capital in this neighborhood was very high.  From this, we were able to conclude that within demographics where there are large families, social capital is much higher than in a community of single working adults.

15 comments:

  1. HAHAH i love your video Sarah! You guys did a great job!

    Sophie Chevallier

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  2. Wow, I love the uniqueness of your interviewing lab. Its amazing how many people know only people on one side of their house and not the other :P

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  3. That video made me laugh so hard, great job you guys! Also i not only enjoyed your video, but i also learned a little about social capital in America.

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  4. Kinda interesting. It makes me wonder if these results are singularly for Cary. It is well known as being the epitome of suburbia. Next to Plano, TX, of couse. And haha, Sarah has a boyfriend.....................


    -Will

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  5. I am very happy that you guys interviewed people that don't go to this school! This way we got to see the perspective from people off campus. Your questions were very informative and gave me more insight on social capital in America. Great job!

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  6. WAIT!!! THAT LAST POST WAS FROM ISAIAH!!! I BETTER GET CREDIT FOR THAT!!!!

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  7. I EDITED THIS. THE END
    ~AMBER WANG

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  8. I liked the conclusions you drew about this. It was a well put together lab and it made a lot of sense. I enjoyed reading it and watching the video!!
    -Shelby

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  9. i really enjoyed the labs you guys did.They were very entertaining and interesting. :)
    -Sam

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  10. It was very interesting to see the differences in a normal setting.

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  11. Interesting responses. I think the newer neighborhood is more representative of most in America. Love the ending.-William

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  12. This was so funnnnnny! This was a good experiment tooo! :)

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  13. I must say i really enjoyed this one! The simple fact that the child was comfterable enough to attack those from (or the boyfriends of someone) the neighborhood openly shows how comfterable they all are in this neighbor hood!

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  14. Nice video! and experiment! its funny, entertaining, and informative.
    maura shawn

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  15. I thought this lab was very informative. I liked the idea and the results surprised me! It was amazing to see how different older neighborhoods are than newer neighborhoods. Your video was also very entertaining!
    -Andrew O'Donnell

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