Multicultural Community Development, Social Capital and Social Disorganization: Exploring Urban Areas in the United States

We have three goals in this exploratory study. First, we aim to introduce two distinctive lines of social theories (i.e., social capital and social disorganization) drawn from sociological research and community development research, respectively. Second, we intend to delineate conceptual interfaces of the two theories. Third, most importantly, we wish to discuss what implications can be drawn from the conceptual linkages of the theories in light of the multicultural community development. As an exploratory study, we used a small-scale aggregate dataset from Putnam’s social capital survey and U.S. census data from 24 cities. Findings suggest that as racial diversity increased, informal socializing decreased, or vice versa, in the U.S. context. Implications for multicultural community development are offered with a focus on fostering socialization across racial lines