Geographical Narratives of Exercised Social Capital

GEOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVES OF EXERCISED SOCIAL CAPITAL LINDA NAUGHTON A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of Staffordshire University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2013 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Professor Stephen Williams and Dr Allan Watson for giving me the opportunity to undertake this PhD and for having faith in my abilities. I have appreciated their support, encouragement and guidance throughout the process. I would like to thank the participants of this research who gave their time and effort so unsparingly. I hope this thesis brings together their stories in a way that honours and respects their work as creative and cultural practitioners. I remain in their debt and have the utmost respect and admiration for their tireless dedication to making Stoke-on-Trent the best place it can be for the people who live here. ` ii Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………..iv Publications and Presentations……….………………………………………………..v Lists of Tables and Figures…………………………………….…………………….......vi Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1 Social Capital Theories: locating context, space, place, agency, and power………………………………………………...…….11 Chapter 2 Jane Jacobs, Cities, and Systems…………..……………………….53 Chapter 3 Methodology……………………………………………………………….87 Chapter 4 Setting the Scene(s) ………………………………………………..…131 Chapter 5 Making it Happen……………………………………………………...155 Chapter 6 Going Round in (small disconnected) Circles……………...181 Chapter 7 Tales of Two Cities…………………………………………………….211 Chapter 8 The ‘Stories so Far’ of Exercised Social Capital…………..237 Chapter 9 Conclusions: Making Space for Space-Making Stories..274 References ……………………………………………………………………..……………295 Appendices……………………………………………………………………..……………312 Appendix 1a Evaluation of research design…………………………..313 Appendix 1b Researcher reflexivity statement………………………316 Appendix 1c Ethical considerations……………………………………...322 Appendix 2a List of participants…………………………………………..323 Appendix 2b Summary of most frequent names……………………324 Appendix 3 Examples of participant maps………………………….325 Appendix 4 Networks and resources survey………………………..328 Appendix 5a Summary of network methods/context……………331 Appendix 5b Resources demand/supply………………………………333 Appendix 6 Stage 2 mapping exercise results…………………….336 Appendix 7 Stage 2 strategic ladder photos………………………338 Appendix 8 Frequency of narrative themes…..…………………..341 ` iii Abstract Social capital, as conceptualised to date, has looked at the composition of social networks and the socio-economic outcomes they produce, with very little reference to context, space, place, agency, or power. This thesis contributes to our understanding of social capital by looking systemically at the socio-spatial context in which networks emerge, and how social capital is exercised through mediating relationships with the objective of understanding how these processes are enabled or constrained in practice. Jane Jacobs approach to observing real-world, city processes from the ground up is applied to a case-study of creative practitioners working in the Stoke-on-Trent area from 2007-2011. Research methods were designed to elicit narratives from participants using a mapping exercise as a way to enact the everyday practices of the participants. These enactments were filmed as participants performed/narrated the story of their network. The narratives collected show that when social capital is conceptualised as an effect of dynamic social networks, rather than a static fund of potential resources, the processes by which individuals and groups win, lose or maintain advantage are uncovered. Exercised social capital has its own spatialities and modalities which place us nearer to, or further away from our goals. This thesis contributes both a novel framework and methods for analysing the exercise of social capital in a real world context which furthers our understanding of the co-constitution of space and society. ` iv Publications and Presentations The research presented in this thesis will be published in the following journal: Naughton L (Forthcoming) Geographical narratives of social capital: telling different stories about the socio-economy with context, space, place, power, and agency. Progress in Human Geography. The following publication is in review: Naughton L (In review) Designing research methods for story-telling: eliciting narratives through enactment and performance. Crossing Conceptual Boundaries. Centre for Narrative Research Yearbook. The research has also been presented at the following conferences: Naughton L (2013) Narrative performances of power in networks of creative practice. AAG annual meeting 9-13th April 2013, Los Angeles. Naughton L (2013) Designing research methods for story-telling. „To think is to experiment‟ seminar, 1st May 2013. Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London. ` v List of Tables Table 1 Summary of network method/context usage……………..138 Table 2 Supply and demand of network resources……………….....150 List of Figures Figure 1. Map of Stoke-on-Trent…………………………………………………...126 Figure 2. Results of mapping exercise to show current connections February 2012…........................................................................................................233 ` vi Introduction „It‟s not what you know it‟s who you know that counts.‟ „I was in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time.‟ These two popular adages introduce the research context of this thesis, which is an exploration of social capital from a geographic perspective. The sayings are almost so familiar that they evade further questioning; they are taken at face value. However, when the sayings are put together, an assumption is required which links both behaviour and context. For this to work, who you know, and how that counts, is to some extent, dependent on where you are and where you can get to, although this is not limited to physical access, reach or presence. According to Robert Putnam (1993, 1995, 2000), social capital produces two types of outcome (although such simplifications will be addressed in further detail in Chapter One). The first is about how people „get by‟ at the most basic level, and the second is about how people „get on‟ with their lives, by achieving their goals and bettering their circumstances. By way of demonstration, two stories are offered which elucidate how context, space, place, agency, and power, play a part in these under-examined processes. The first story is taken from Jane Jacobs‟ (2005) last book, „Dark Age Ahead’ and is a story of how a person‟s ability to survive can be significantly affected by where they live. The second tells how a group of eighteenth century inventors, ` 1 industrialists, and entrepreneurs gathered under one roof to share and exchange ideas that would enable them to „get on‟ with their goals and subsequently transform society. The stories illustrate how the outcomes of social capital are produced by the unexpected and unpredictable behaviours of individuals and groups, working in particular contexts that are inextricable from the analysis of their actions. Who you know, where you are, and what you do, are systemically linked. It is only by looking at the system and not the separate elements that the processes at work behind particular outcomes are revealed. In a chapter called ‘Science Abandoned’, Jane Jacobs (2005) tells how researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.), found that the victims of Chicago‟s 1995 heat-wave died because they had „run out of water, had no air-conditioning, did not leave their rooms to find cool refuge and were not successfully checked up on‟ (Jacobs, 2005: 82). The research told us what is obvious; vulnerable groups faced with extremes of heat will die if they are not able to keep cool and hydrated. However, a second research project undertaken by a Chicago-born sociology student, Eric Klinenberg (2002), uncovered much more insightful information by looking at two neighbouring communities that had significantly different survival rates: North Lawndale with 40 deaths per 100,000 and South Lawndale with 4 deaths per 100,000. Klinenberg found that the differences in behaviour of the elderly were directly linked to the community they lived in. ` 2 Jacobs highlights, in her re-telling of the story, how North Lawndale suffered from the effects of sustained depopulation, „…elderly people were not accustomed to walking in their district because there was almost nothing for them to walk to. It was a commercial and social desert, almost devoid of stores and other gathering places. Old people were thus unacquainted with storekeepers who could welcome them into air-conditioned space. They were afraid, too, to leave their apartments, for fear they would be burglarized while they were out. For the same reason they feared the strangers who came to check on them. In the crisis they were behaving as they always did in this place with no functioning community‟ (Jacobs, 2005: 83-84). In South Lawndale, things were very different, „…(the) elderly were accustomed to walking outside. There were plenty of places for them to go on the district‟s bustling crowded streets. They knew storekeepers and had no hesitation about hanging around in their air-conditioned spaces where they also had access to water. They felt secure about leaving their apartments, and they trusted those who came to check on them, some of whom they knew as acquaintances. In the crisis they were behaving much as they always

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