IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD: BUILDING SOCIAL CAPITAL IN SAFE AND COHESIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD (Bagai aur dengan tebing: membina modal social dalam kejiranan yang selamat dan berpadu)

Abstract

A vibrant and close-knit community is always associated with norms of trust and reciprocity withfriendly neighbours in order to produce generalised social capital for the wider society. The researcherargues that the experience of long term interaction among neighbours, neighbourhood safety andcohesion and an active neighbourhood environment all contribute to social capital among neighbours.As a result, young people become more trusting in and reciprocative with people in general. YoungAustralians and permanent residents aged 16 to 25 (n=283) participated in this study through anonline survey. The findings support previous literature, which found cohesive neighbours are moretrusting than less cohesive neighbours. The results also indicate that the young people who perceivedtheir neighbourhood as safe were relatively more trusting than those who perceived theirneighbourhood as less safe. These suggest that creating neighbourhood „togetherness‟ and preventionsof crime promotes could promote more neighbourhood social capital. In turn, young people enjoymore generalised social capital in the wider society.