Social Capital, Educational Aspirations, and Intergenerational Mobility in Low-Income Urban Communities in Nigeria

This study examines the mechanisms through which social capital shapes educational aspirations and intergenerational educational mobility in low-income urban communities in Nigeria, using a longitudinal qualitative design to trace aspiration formation and mobility pathways across generations. Social capital theory, particularly Putnam's distinction between bonding and bridging social capital, provides a powerful but underutilised framework for understanding educational aspiration formation in African urban poverty contexts. In Nigeria's rapidly urbanising low-income communities, understanding how social networks shape educational opportunity and aspiration is critical for designing mobility-enhancing interventions. This study uses a three-year longitudinal qualitative design, tracking 60 families across three low-income urban communities in Lagos, Kano, and Port Harcourt. Data collection methods include three waves of in-depth family interviews, social network mapping, life history narratives, and school record tracking. Theories of social capital, aspiration formation, and intergenerational mobility are applied using critical realist analytical principles. Results reveal that bridging social capital, particularly access to networks connecting families to higher socioeconomic communities through church, mosque, professional association, or NGO membership, is the most powerful aspiration-enabling mechanism. Bonding social capital within poverty-concentrated communities simultaneously provides emotional support and constrains aspirations through collective efficacy limitations. First-generation university graduates in the family history dramatically shift subsequent generational aspirations. The study contributes an original Social Capital Aspiration Mobility Model for urban Nigeria and recommends community development programmes that systematically build bridging social capital as an education aspiration intervention.

Keywords: social capital, educational aspirations, intergenerational mobility, urban poverty, Nigeria.