Social mix and subjective wellbeing in Chinese urban neighborhoods: Exploring the domino effects of social capital through multilevel serial mediation analysis

Abstract

As a policy response to residential segregation, social mix has been actively introduced in homogeneous neighborhoods. Focusing on neighborhood social mix in urban China, this research attempts to unravel the domino effects of social capital in mediating the relationships between social mix and residents’ wellbeing. Drawing on a dataset with a hierarchical structure and capturing the mediating effects of social capital with various operationalized forms, we conduct multilevel serial mediation analysis. Our research findings verify the sequential mechanism of social capital and reveal that the trigger point of domino effects lies in the occurrence of public familiarity. Following this, most of the subsequent forms of social capital can be generated spontaneously one after another, resembling domino effects. Nonetheless, owing to socioeconomic disparity, such domino effects halt at forms of matters sharing and social leverage, which are particularly conducive to life chances. By situating the progressive formation process of social capital into the broader neighborhood social mix framework, this study helps to unpack the black box of social mix mechanisms in promoting subjective wellbeing. Practically, the empirical findings and policy implications suggest that the design of both social mix indicators and physical space are important for optimizing the development and outcomes of socially mixed neighborhoods.