LOS ANGELES – Less educated and lower income neighborhoods are consistently farther away from cultural institutions – such as elite universities, museums, and theaters – that can help advance one’s social mobility, according to a new study from the USC Price School of Public Policy.
The study – published in the Journal of Economic Geography – is the first to quantify the geographic barriers that may reduce the number of lower-income and less educated households who consume the types of “cultural capital,” such as knowledge, skills and education, that enables greater social mobility.
The study found:
To conduct the analysis, Professor Elizabeth Currid-Halkett and former USC Price PhD student Andrew Eisenlohr measured both the straight-line distances and expected travel times between randomly sampled neighborhoods and eight amenities of cultural capital: libraries, museums, elite universities, Whole Foods stores, Equinox gyms and spas, fine performing arts venues, independent film venues, and art galleries within the 12 most populous American metropolitan areas.
The study authors made several policy recommendations to close these access gaps, including:
Journal of Economic Geography
A. Eisenlohr is now at the Council of the District of Columbia. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Council of the District of Columbia or others in the District of Columbia government.