Bridge building : afterschool activities, youth social networks, and community development

In recent years, U.S. cities have dramatically increased funding for afterschool activities. These afterschool programs may contribute to community development by expanding social networks, providing new channels for the flow of information and resources to low income neighborhoods. Drawing on research and literature from the fields of sociology, political science and adolescent development, I develop an argument for this hypothesis. The theory is tested using both qualitative data collected from interviews at three case study sites, and quantitative data from surveys distributed to afterschool youth programs in the Boston area. I find that afterschool programs build both bridging and bonding social capital by increasing local and extra-local connections between adolescents and adults, peers, and parents. Policy recommendations designed to increase the social network impact of afterschool programming are provided.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Forman, Benjamin

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Phillip L. Clay.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17680

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17680