Sprawl Research Paper

Since the late 20th Century, social capital and civic engagement in the United States has been on decline. Sprawl is one explanation for this breakdown. Sprawl, or suburbanization, is the movement of individuals from the central city to geographic areas outside of the urban core. Sprawl diminishes social capital through the encouragement of individualism and privatism, and spatial fragmentation of the workplace and home. The results indicate that sprawl establishes echo-chamber neighborhoods and cities centered on homogeneity and a lack of cross cutting cleavages (bridging capital). Sprawl has also undermined social connectedness because it has increased commuting times. Evidence suggests that each additional ten minutes in daily commuting