The Case of ‘Trust’ – Research on Social Capital in V4 Countries (original) (raw)

Trust as an element of social capital – evidence from a survey of Polish and Spanish students

Journal of International Studies

Th e main aim of the paper is to describe personal, public and occupation-related trust of Polish students. Th is aim is refl ected in the paper's structure. Th e theoretical part explores key issues related to social capital and to trust as its crucial component. Th e empirical part off ers an analysis of a survey conducted among Polish students and, additionally, for the purpose of comparison, also among their peers from Spain. Several key conclusions are formulated in the fi nal section of the paper. Th ey refer in particular to the diff erences in the areas of personal, public and occupation-related trust between the two analysed groups of students.

The social theory of trust and the sociological theory of social capital

Belvedere Meridionale, 2016

Th e paper off ers a theoretical contribution to the post-millennial debates on social capital. Th e sociological theory of social capital is reconstructed via the social theory of trust. Th e paper shows how the various kinds of interpersonal and institutional trust, combined with norms of cooperation form themselves into social networks to be studied by the three ideal types of social capital: bonding, bridging and linking social capital. Th is version of social capital theory lends itself to the complex empirical analysis of varied social phenomena from child abuse to projectifi cation, shedding light both on the sunny as well as on the dark side of social capital, covering also its dynamic aspects.

Questions about Trust for the Development of Social Capital and Competence

2013

This article aims at discussing the understanding of trust so as to contribute to the handling of social capital, as well as competences, focusing on knowledge transmission in organizations. This work was done based on concepts of trust developed from the theoretic perspectives of Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Economics and Administration. It intends to reflect upon the amplitude of the variables that contribute to trust building, basic resource to social capital and competence once it is the element that leads to positive intentions among individuals, which, in their turn, lead to the interaction of relationships between individuals and social groups. This work analysis, and shows trust as a common element to social capital and competence formation, and next it discusses trust in different knowledge areas. The result of this analysis leads to questioning the need to better understand the mechanisms that build trust in different contexts and levels.

Measures of Social Capital and Trust

Trust and trustworthiness are important components of social capital and much attention has been devoted to the problems of their correct evaluation. Attitudinal survey questions as reported in the EVS – European Value Survey - are often regarded as inefficient indicators of trust, since they lack of behavioural underpinnings (Putnam, 1995) which one might desire when measuring trust. In this paper, we consider alternative measures of trust and trustworthiness, based on behavioural assumptions. We construct two relative behavioural measures of trust (RBM1 and RBM2), both based on the ex post measurement of trust, once individuals are informed on the level of trustworthiness of the social group to which they have been allocated during the experiment. Our main finding is that the relative behavioural measures show that trust strongly varies once the individual is informed on the on the level of trustworthiness of the social group to which he\she has been allocated during the experimen...

MEASURES OF SOCIAL CAPITAL AND TRUST ξ

2007

Trust and trustworthiness are important components of social capital and much attention has been devoted to the problems of their correct evaluation. Attitudinal survey questions as reported in the EVS -European Value Survey -are often regarded as inefficient indicators of trust, since they lack of behavioural underpinnings (Putnam, 1995) which one might desire when measuring trust.

Who trusts?: The origins of social trust in seven societies

European Societies, 2003

This article identifies six main theories of the determinants of social trust, and tests them against survey data from seven societies, 1999– 2001. Three of the six theories of trust fare rather poorly and three do better. First and foremost, social trust tends to be high among citizens who believe that there are few severe social conflicts and where the sense of public safety is high. Second, informal social networks are associated with trust. And third, those who are successful in life trust more, or are more inclined by their personal experience to do so. Individual theories seem to work best in societies with higher levels of trust, and societal ones in societies with lower levels of trust. This may have something to do with the fact that our two low trust societies, Hungary and Slovenia, happen to have experienced revolutionary change in the very recent past, so that societal events have overwhelmed individual circumstances.