Economic crisis and social capital in European societies : the role of politics in understanding short-term changes in social capital

Iglič, Hajdeja (author), Rözer, Jesper (author), Völker, Beate G. M. (author)

How did the economic crisis impact social capital in European societies? The empirical studies conducted so far provide contradictory conclusions about the strength and direction of its influence. We argue that to better understand the effects of the economic crisis on social capital (social trust, formal and informal networks) it is crucial to examine both its impact on people's economic situation and the way it reshaped the relationship between individuals and political institutions and altered key political factors (political trust, the welfare state, political activism). Our analysis of European Social Survey data between 2006 and 2012 shows that changes in social trust were smaller than in formal and informal social networks. It also confirms that political factors played an important mediating role in producing these changes: changes in social trust and formal networks can especially be explained by the impact of the political factors, while variations in informal networks are mainly due to the changing economy. Moreover, the analyses show that while the economic crisis generally lowered social capital, some mechanisms such as a sense of togetherness and left-wing political activism, enhanced social capital.

• Language: English
• Keywords: economic crisis, social capital, social networks, social trust, political trust, political activism, economic crisis 2008, sociology, Europe
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: Str. 195-231
• Numbering: Vol. 23, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-147424
• UDC: 316.334
• ISSN on article: 1461-6696
• DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2020.1765406
• COBISS.SI-ID: 16476419
• Publication date in RUL: 05.07.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: European societies
• Shortened title: Europ. societies
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis, European Sociological Association
• ISSN: 1461-6696
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2813009

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: politično zaupanje, politični aktivizem, gospodarska kriza 2008, socialni kapital, sociologija, družbena omrežja, Evropa

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P5-0166
• Name: Upravljanje omrežij javnega in zasebnega sektorja