Explaining relationships between ethnic diversity and informal social capital across European countries and regions: Tests of constrict, conflict and contact theory

In this study we focus on the relationship between ethnic diversity and informal social capital. As this refers to rather strong social ties in the intimate domain, it is a strict test of Putnam’s claim that ethnic diversity would decrease social capital. In order to explain these relationships, we derived mediating mechanisms from conflict and contact theory. Using data from the European Social Survey (2002/2003), we applied multilevel analyses considering three levels: individuals, regions and countries. Our results revealed a direct positive effect of ethnic diversity at the country level on informal helping, yet no indirect effect via the mediating variables. At the regional level, we only found an indirect effect of ethnic diversity. Here, ethnic diversity increases the likelihood of intergroup contact that in turn is positively related to both informal social meeting and helping. Perceived ethnic threat turned out to have a negative effect on informal social meeting.     

Latent Class Models in action: Bridging social capital & Internet usage

This paper explores how Latent Class Models (LCM) can be applied in social research, when the basic assumptions of regression models cannot be validated. We examine the usefulness of this method with data collected from a study on the relationship between bridging social capital and the Internet. Social capital is defined here as the resources that are potentially available in one’s social ties. Bridging is a dimension of social capital, usually related to weak ties (acquaintances), and a source of instrumental resources such as information. The study surveyed a stratified random sample of 417 inhabitants of Lisbon, Portugal. We used LCM to create the variable bridging social capital, but also to estimate the relationship between bridging social capital and Internet usage when we encountered convergence problems with the logistic regression analysis. We conclude by showing a positive relationship between bridging and Internet usage, and by discussing the potential of LCM for social science research.     

The role of social integration in the adverse effect of unemployment on mental health – Testing the causal pathway and buffering hypotheses using panel data

Social integration is considered crucially important for understanding the adverse effect of unemployment on mental health. Social integration is assumed to either bring about the health effects of unemployment (causal pathway hypothesis) or shield the unemployed from such effects (buffering hypothesis). However, there is scarce empirical evidence, especially based on panel data, regarding these two hypotheses. In our analysis, we use up to ten waves of the “Labour Market and Social Security” (PASS) German panel study and apply fixed effects panel regressions to account for unobserved confounders. We test several indicators that cover different aspects of social integration (numbers of strong and weak ties, conflict in the household, employed friends, general and job search-specific social support). We find no empirical support for the causal pathway hypothesis and only very limited support for the buffering hypothesis.     

Ethnic social capital: Individual and group level sources and their economic consequences

Ethnic social capital shapes economic action by immigrants by providing information, training, and credit that is otherwise unavailable. However, prior research on the effects of ethnic social capital on economic attainment by salaried workers primarily relied on case studies of specific destinations or ethnic groups. Furthermore, prior research focused on group level effects of ethnic social capital while largely ignoring the effects of individual-level utilization of ethnic ties. This study addresses these limitations by combining data from the New Immigrant Survey and the 5% file of the 2000 US Census. This allows controlling for group differences in actual utilization of familial ties and for differences between groups in their demographic makeup, legal status, and human capital when estimating the effect of ethnic social capital. It also allows addressing the potentially divergent implications of ethnic social capital for individual and group economic attainment. Results suggest that, on both the individual and group levels, reliance on ethnic social capital is associated with lower earnings for recent legal immigrants to the US.     

Gender and homophily: Differences in male and female association in Blau space

Homophily, the tendency for similar individuals to associate, is one of the most robust findings in social science. Despite this robustness, we have less information about how personal characteristics relate to differences in the strength of homophily. Nor do we know much about the impact of personal characteristics on judgments of relative dissimilarity. The present study compares the strength of age, religious, and educational homophily for male and female non-kin ties using network data from the 1985 General Social Survey. It also compares the patterning of ties among dissimilar alters for both sexes. The results of this exploratory effort indicate that males and females are almost equally homophilous, although religious homophily exerts a stronger influence on females than males. Males and females do, however, differ in their tendency to associate with certain types of dissimilar alters. Education is essentially uniform for both sexes, religious difference is more important for females than males, and those over sixty or under thirty are less different from the middle categories of age for females than for males. The results suggest that males are able to bridge larger areas of social space in their non-kin interpersonal networks and likely accumulate greater social capital as a consequence.     

“共和构想”是社会包容性政策的核心思想

我们不能将"社会包容"一词单纯地理解为"社会排斥"的反义词。"社会排斥"强调的是个体正常的社会关联被边缘化的状态,它是一个与社会秩序相关的保守概念。而"社会包容"是一个充满活力和远见的概念,它建立在社会团结的基础之上,它使得个体能够更多、更广地参与到社会生活的各个领域。     

The resilience of neighborhood social processes: A case study of the 2011 Brisbane flood

Social disorganization theories position neighborhood social capital and collective efficacy as key social processes that should facilitate community resilience in the aftermath of disaster. Yet limited evidence demonstrates that these social processes are themselves resilient with some studies showing that disaster can fracture even once cohesive neighborhoods. In this paper we assess the stability of neighborhood level collective efficacy and social capital before and after a disaster. We use multilevel structural equation modeling and draw on census and longitudinal survey data collected from over 4000 residents living in 148 neighborhoods in Brisbane, Australia before and after a significant flood event. We examine what happens to social capital and collective efficacy in flooded and non-flooded neighborhoods and assess whether demographic shifts are associated with change and/or stability in these processes. We find strong evidence that these processes operate similarly across flooded and not flooded communities. Our findings also reveal significant stability for our measures of social capital across time, while collective efficacy increases post flood across all neighborhoods, but more so in flooded neighborhoods. Neighborhood demographics have limited effect on patterns of stability or change in these social processes. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for our understanding of neighborhood resilience in the wake of disaster.     

Market Embeddedness and Corporate Instability: The Ecology of Inter-industrial Networks

This paper studies the effect of inter-industrial control on the survival of Israeli firms. It examines how relationsbetweenenvironments modify relationswithinenvironments. More specifically, this paper studies how the social organization of the competition at the aggregate level (industry) affects outcomes at the individual (firm) level. Using trade data and national accounts statistics, we specify and test the hypothesis that an industry's corporate instability is negatively associated with its social capital (comprised from its market embeddedness and political embeddedness). Our findings show that industry's corporate instability within industries is associated with the industry's structural embeddedness in the network of input–output transactions, the degree of control it has over its external transactions, and its political leverage.     

社会转型期党的群众工作的路径优化

我国当前正处于社会转型的关键期和改革的深水区,党的转型与社会转型相互交织,这使得党的群众工作面临繁重复杂的任务和挑战。社会资本是政党对社会施加影响,并最终实现政党领导的重要因素。社会资本理论的分析框架对深入探析转型期党的群众工作的路径选择提供了重要的指导。社会网络资本是做好党的群众工作的前提和基础;社会规范资本是做好群众工作的基本保障;社会信任资本是做好群众工作的核心和目的。投资社会资本,做好转型期的群众工作,要从构建社会网络资本、发展社会规范资本、培植社会信任资本入手,最终建立合作、和谐、稳定的党群关系。     

新手妈妈社会支持网络的多元化：一个文献综述

社会支持的获得对于新手妈妈的身心健康、角色适应以及家庭关系有着重要的作用.通过文献梳理发现：新手妈妈主要从丈夫、女性亲属等强关系中获得情感支持和育儿帮助.育儿虚拟社区成员之间的弱关系可以弥补传统社会支持体系中信息支持的缺乏,并提供情感性和友伴性等其他类型的社会支持.新手妈妈的社会支持网络呈现出多元化的趋势,但是网络交往的匿名性和局部性使得网络社会支持不可能取代传统社会支持体系而只是对其进行补充.     

Strength matters: Tie strength as a causal driver of networks’ information benefits

Studies of social networks have often taken the existence of a social tie as a proxy for the transmission of information. However, other studies of social networks in the labor market propose that the likelihood of information transmission might depend on strength of the tie; and that tie strength is a potentially important source of the tie's value. After all, even if job seekers have social ties to those who have valuable job information, the seekers will gain little information benefit when the ties do not actually transmit the information. This paper clarifies the conditions under which social ties might provide information benefits. We use a survey vignette experiment and ask MBA students about their likelihood of relaying job information via strong ties (to friends) or weak ties (to acquaintances), holding constant the structural locations spanned by the tie and job seekers' fit with the job. The results support the claim that strength of tie has a causal effect on the chances of information transmission: potential referrers are more likely to relay job information to their friends than to acquaintances. The larger implication of these findings is that whatever benefits there might be to using weak ties to reach distant non-redundant information during job search, these benefits need to be considered against the likely fact that people connected via weak ties are less likely to actually share information about job opportunities than are people to whom the job seeker is strongly tied.     

论社会资本的性质与类型

社会资本虽然区别于物质资本、金融资本与人力资本,但同物质资本、金融资本与人力资本一样,也是人类社会经济生活中不可或缺的一类资源。认知型社会资本与结构型社会资本是相辅相成的关系。社会资本可分别从个人社会资本、组织社会资本、社区社会资本和国家社会资本等不同层面进行考察。由于社会资本是一个基本概念,涵盖了诸多人际合作性互动中产生的认知类和结构类产物,是各种社会资本形式的集合,如果不进行类别分析,就断言所有的社会资本形式都是公共物品抑或私人物品,那就难免犯以偏概全的错误。对于社会资本的正、负外部性给出一个既能够自洽又具有科学性的解释,必须从社会资本是人际合作性互动的产物去探究:基于善的愿望和动机进行人际合作性互动,产生正的外部性;而出于恶的动机进行人际合作性互动,则产生负的外部性。     

“社会资本”质的规定性的探讨

社会资本从提出到现在,己经被广泛地研究和使用,人们从不同的方面、不同的角度对社会资本的内涵做出了规定。这些定义虽然各有独到之处,但作为社会资本质的规定性,还存有一定的缺憾,主要是不能把社会资本的基本特征作为一个整体表现出来,从而造成社会资本与其它一些事物的混淆。科学的社会资本,既涵盖了资本的一般属性又突出了社会资本的特殊属性。它正确的质的规定性：投入在社会关系中又必须能够获得社会收益的社会资源。     

企业社会资本、组织学习与经营绩效:转型升级的机制和路径——对格力电器案例的研究

在企业技术创新和可持续发展能力研究领域,组织动员各类社会资本以及对组织学习行为的研究日益引起人们的关注,企业社会资本有利于促进组织学习活动进而提升经营绩效的观点已成为共识,但是三者之间的具体作用机制还有待更深入的分析。研究表明,企业内部社会资本有助于组织开展利用式学习提升财务绩效,企业外部社会资本则有助于组织开展探索式学习提升新产品绩效,两者互构,协调协同,带动企业转型升级,实现可持续发展。     

Differential investments and opportunities: How do neighborhood conditions moderate the relationship between perceived housing discrimination and social capital?

Though the adverse consequences of perceived housing discrimination have been documented, little is known about whether such experience undermines one's social capital in a neighborhood and even less is about whether and how this relationship is altered by neighborhood features. We proposed a framework that simultaneously considers within-individual and between-neighborhood processes. We applied multilevel structural equation models to data from Philadelphia (n = 9987) and found that (a) perceived housing discrimination was negatively associated with one's social capital even after other confounders were considered, (b) this negative association could be partly explained by the proliferated daily stress and anxiety mechanisms, (c) differential exposures to neighborhood social disadvantage accounted for the variation in social capital across neighborhoods, and (d) the adverse association between perceived housing discrimination and social capital could be attenuated by neighborhood stability. The findings suggested that appropriate interventions should buffer the negative association of perceived housing discrimination with social capital.     

High political participation, high social capital? A relational analysis of youth social capital and political participation

Social capital has been alleged to increase the capacity for political mobilization. Yet, until now, the empirical debate has not succeeded in rendering a detailed account of the relationships between social capital and political participation partly because of the use of a reductive conception and operationalization of both concepts. Using a multidimensional and relational technique (multiple correspondence analysis) and a detailed youth survey data from Belgium, the article demonstrates that youth draw on diverse forms of social capital and that these forms vary along socio-economic status and ethnic origin. Six classes based on the forms of social capital were identified. Two of them - the ‘Committed’ and ‘Religious’ are highly political active. The ‘Committed’ Class, based on a diversified social capital, consists mainly of non-immigrant youth with a high socio-economic background undertaking a large diversity of political activities. The ‘Religious’ Class, based on a narrow social capital built around religious activities, is mostly composed of ethnic minority youth with a low SES involved in more specific political activities.     

参与式治理与城市社区社会资本的培育——以惠州市惠城区桥西街道麦地社区为例

我国社区建设正处于20世纪80年代以来的统治危机和社会资本下降的双重背景,现在必须反思社区建设的目标模式,消除社区建设存在的内部矛盾。社会资本是实现社会效率和社会活力的有力手段。基于目前我国社会资本下降的现实,随着社会资本的下降及其带来的深刻影响,如何培育和重建社区社会资本成为社区建设的目标模式之一。文章以惠州城市社区治理为现实模板,分析了从参与式治理的角度挖掘社区的社会资本,促进参与式治理与社区社会资本培育的良性互动,构建新型社区建设新模式的建议。     

信任与社会资本关系的多维解读

“社会资本”从诞生之日起就与“信任”保持着千丝万缕的联系。相互信任的主客观要求以及信任关系的建立在某种程度上成为社会资本产生的重要条件。而信任又被视为社会资本的一种形式,与网络、规范一起构成了社会资本的主要内涵。社会资本多层次与多构面的特点为两者关系的讨论增加了复杂程度。采用两分法的方式对社会资本的层次与构面进行剖析,从个体层次一结构维度、个体层次一关系维度、群体层次一结构维度、群体层次一关系维度重新对信任与社会资本的关系进行阐释,探讨信任与社会资本如何在一个动态的实践过程中获得“二重性”。     

社会资本是社会支持的重要渠道

社会资本作为一种人际关系网络是政府和市场之外的为人们提供生存发展支持的第三条渠道。无论是在国内,还是在国外,社会资本作为一种社会支持网络在反贫困、社会保障、社会救济、就业和家庭养老等方面都起着重要作用。     

Partisan strength,political trust and generalized trust in the United States: An analysis of the General Social Survey, 1972–2014

The literature on political parties suggests that strong partisan identities are associated with citizens’ effective interaction with the political system, and with higher levels of political trust. Traditionally, party identity therefore is seen as a mechanism that allows for political integration. Simultaneously, however, political parties have gained recent attention for their role in promoting societal polarization by reinforcing competing and even antagonistic group identities. This article uses General Social Survey data from 1972 – 2014 to investigate the relationship between partisan strength and both political and generalized trust. The findings show that increases in partisan strength are positively related to political trust, but negatively related to generalized trust. This suggests that while partisan strength is indeed an important linkage mechanism for the political system, it is also associated with a tendency toward social polarization, and this corrosive effect thus far has not gained sufficient attention in literature on party identity.