IMPACT OF MAIN UPGRADING PROGRAMME ON SOCIAL CAPITAL

Abstract

The key focus of this research is to highlight the impact of the Main Upgrading Programme (MUP) on social capital as this topic of interest has yet to be fully explored in extant literature. Over the years, Singapore continuously invests in its urban renewal efforts for the housing landscape to meet the aspirations and growing affluence of Singaporeans. To prevent the urban deterioration and to enhance the asset value of the mature estates, the MUP was introduced in the early 1990s as a major initiative that leveraged on the provision of upgraded public features to strengthen the social fabric among neighbours. Findings revealed that the MUP and non-MUP groups shared similar trends for social interactions and reciprocity at face validity. However, the high frequency of social encounters and large social networks do not determine the quality and intensity of social interaction among neighbours. The level of reciprocity is found to be relatively weak as the respondents are generally independent when it comes to meeting their own needs. Quantitative results concluded that in most aspects of social networks, reciprocity, perceptions of possible social platforms and sense of belonging, there are insignificant differences between the MUP and non-MUP respondents. Overall, this emphasises that the impact of MUP on social capital is statistically insignificant on the contrary of what the MUP was designed and intended for. Lastly, to further understand what drives a sense of belonging, it was assessed that one’s level of social capital may play a contributing role to their sense of attachment. One of the limitations of this study was that it could not fully investigate the degree of community participation and political/ institutional confidence among residents due to the extensiveness of these areas that go beyond the scope of this paper.