Social Class, Social Capital and Residential Mobility in China

To understand the influence of social capital (the size of local supportive networks and generalized trust) in facilitating success across societies varying in residential mobility, the data of 16,253 participants from 29 provinces/municipalities in China were examined. For the role of local supportive networks, the results showed that people with more social capital were better off (in terms of current income, social mobility from 5 years ago and social mobility from teenage) than those with less social capital in more residentially mobile societies whereas social capital was a weaker predictor of success in less residentially mobile societies. For generalized trust, the results showed that the positive role of generalized trust in promoting success was less sensitive to the influence of societal residential mobility. These findings suggest that expansion of local supportive networks may be more important in facilitating success in more residentially mobile societies than in less residentially mobile societies.