European Societies CLASS AND SOCIAL CAPITAL IN EUROPE CLASS AND SOCIAL CAPITAL IN EUROPE A transnational analysis of the European Social Survey (original) (raw)
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Social capital in contemporary Europe: evidence from the European Social Survey
Portugese Journal of Social Sciences, 2006
Social capital is an increasingly popular concept among scientists, politicians and the media. It is regarded as a remedy for many of the failures of modern society and seen as wonder glue conducive to feelings of happiness and to better performing economies and democracies. In this article we are not so much concerned with the consequences of social capital for society, but we focus on why some people have higher levels of social capital than others. We argue that this is not only due to a number of personal characteristics but also to contextual or country features. We therefore formulate hypotheses about the effects of individual and macro or country characteristics that were tested using the survey data from the European Social Survey (2002). The results demonstrate that the impact of macro characteristics is rather modest compared to the effects of individual attributes. It also seems that social capital is a multifaceted phenomenon that cannot be captured by one single measure.
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2013
Despite its historical roots and wide contemporary use, the debate over the conceptualization of social capital is very much alive among researchers of different academic subjects, with its main goal being the development of empirical measurement tools. The chief aim of this article is to demonstrate the multidimensional and consistent structure of social capital in European regions through an exploratory factor analysis and a subsequent confirmatory factor analysis.Throughout the paper we critically analyze the gap between the theoretical understandings of social capital and the ways it has been measured in most empirical work so far. We use data from the five European Social Survey waves (2002-2010) in European regions. We also approach social capital levels in these regions: diachronically between 2002 and 2010 using a time-series analysis and synchronically in 2010 using an analysis of variance to determine mean differences (ANOVA). Lastly, we study the effect several determinants have, at individual and national levels over the different dimensions of social capital so as to determine whether there are verifiable differences between European regions. In order to do this we used OLS regression analyses.
Social Capital in Europe: A Comparative Regional Analysis
2012
This book investigates the determinants of social capital across 85 European regions, capturing the renewed interest among social capital theorists regarding the importance of active secondary groups which support the correct functioning of society and its democratic institutions. By complementing socio-economic explanations with a comparative historic-institutional analysis between two deviant cases (Wallonia and south of Italy) and two regular cases (Flanders and the north east of Italy), the author's findings suggest that income inequality, labour market participation and national divergence are important factors in explaining the lack of social capital. Furthermore, the traditional historical determinism is refuted with the formulation of the sleeping social capital theory
Social Capital in Europe from 1990 to 2012: Trends and Convergence
Social Indicators Research, 2016
Social capital affects many social and economic outcomes; hence, it is important to monitor its changes over time. Previous literature on trends of social capital focused mainly on the case of US, devoting less attention to other regions of the world, such as Europe. This study uses WVS-EVS integrated data (1990-2012) to describe the trends of 10 proxies of social capital in 30 Western and Eastern European countries. The paper demonstrates that the convergence of social capital among European regions was limited, and it shows evidence of path dependency, especially in case of relational social capital.
Structure of Social Capital in Europe, 2003
Romanian Journal of Sociology, 1-2, XI, 2003
The paper lay the foundation fo r a sociocultural map o f Europe from the point o f view o f social capital. The social capital (SC) profile o f 21 European countries is measured by a set o f nine indicators referring to interpersonal trust, tolerance, association, and institutional trust. The configuration o f SC within Europe is to a large degree consistent with the map o f that continent from the point o f view o f modernity and post-modernity values (Inglehart).The same three clusters o f Catholic, Northern and form er communist countries appear in the SC mapping as compared to the post-modernism one. Religion counts more in Western than in form er communist countries as predictors o f SC; Catholics tend to be less tolerant than other denominations in Western Europe; attitudes favourable to change are also favourable to high social capital -high tolerance especially -in the majority o f analysed countries;old and agricultural men from the Western countries constitute a segment ofpopulation o f lower SC.
Structural aspects of social capital: tests for cross-national equivalence in Europe
Quality & Quantity
In this contribution we start from the emerging consensus on the widely disputed phenomenon of social capital. We propose to focus on structural aspects of social capital: formal (contacts within formal organizations) and informal (contacts outside of formal organizations). First, we address methodological questions on the cross-national equivalence of these social capital measurements. Second, we re-visit substantive questions on the patterns of relationships in different European countries. In particular, we inquire to which degree formal and informal social capital can substitute each other, as well as being complementary. We take advantage of recent Eurobaromer data (2004) containing a wide range of valid measurements on both structural aspects of social capital. We find strong evidence for cross-national equivalent measurements regarding formal social capital, employing probabilistic scalogram analyses. For informal social capital, we find strong evidence for configural and metric invariance as well as evidence for partial scalar invariance, employing multi group confirmatory factor analyses. We have to reject the substantive hypothesis on substitution of formal and informal social capital for all countries under consideration, except for Romania. We corroborate the hypothesis on complementarity of formal and informal social capital.
2015
With its popularity has come an unresolved issue about social capital: is it an individual or a collective property, or both? Many researchers take it for granted that social capital is col-lective, but most social surveys implicitly measure social capital at the individual level. After reviewing the definitions by Bourdieu, Coleman, and Putnam, I become to agree with Portes that social capital can be an individual asset and should be firstly analyzed as such; if social capital is to be analyzed as a collective property, then the analysis should explicitly draw on a clear definition of individual social capital. I thus define individual social capital as the features of social groups or networks that each individual member can access and use for obtaining fur-ther benefits. Four types of features are identified (basic, specific, generalized, and structural), and example formulations of survey questions are proposed. Following this approach, I then assess some survey questions organi...
Policy & Politics, 2008
This study contributes to earlier studies aimed at the question whether the welfare state crowds out social capital or not by examining to what extent the welfare state affects the value of social capital. The present article investigates the effects of three sources of social capital on occupational prestige and test whether these effects are moderated by welfare state effort in terms of social spending. Multilevel analyses based on European Social Survey (ESS) 2003 and International Monetary Fund (IMF) data, including 39,299 persons from 24 European countries, provides evidence that welfare state effort decreases the value of social capital.
Patterns of Formal and Informal Social Capital in Europe
European Sociological Review, 2007
Studies of social capital have concentrated upon either formal associative behaviour or informal social relations (networks). This article looks at the relationship between these two ty'pes of social capital by examining social networks, social and family support (informal social capital) on the one hand and associational behaviour along with social trust (formal social capital) on the other. Using the Eurobarometer 62.2 covering a representative sample of 27 countries the analysis found that with this approach, regions in Europe can be grouped according to the two dimensions, whether they are high on both forms of social capital (complementarity) or whether informal social capital substitutes for formal social capital (substitution). The Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands had the highest levels of all forms of social capital. In the South and East of Europe informal social capital was more important, but whilst in the South this was mainly in the form of family support, in the East informal support outside the family was also important. Thus, we can speak of 'social capital regimes' to better understand the various cultures of participation and cohesion across Europe.
Costa et al (2002), Social Classes in Europe
Portuguese Journal of Social Science, 2002
The current globalization context brings new questions to class analysis. After a brief review of the theoretical stance and the operationalization possibilities offered by today's sociology of social classes and stratification, this article presents a comparative analysis in which a selected set of social recomposition indicators is applied to the European Union as a whole and to each one of its countries. One of the main themes discussed throughout the article is the relative importance of national and global parameters in the structuration of class relations.