Special Issue on Social Capital

In this thematic issue of Acta Sociologica, the concept of social capital is analysed – using different types of empirical data – in both a European and a national context. Since the beginning of the 1990s there has been extensive discussion on how to define social capital. Today, this is probably one of the most contested concepts in the social sciences. The concept of social capital has been used in a variety of different contexts, including analyses of social relations and social networks within communities and organizations, of shared values, norms and habits in social groups and society as a whole, and of trust in institutions and towards other people. The concept has become increasingly popular in attempts to understand the growing individualism and the social and cultural diversity of Western societies. Social capital is usually defined as the resources individuals or social groups can rely on in their relations with other people in society. The concept is seen as a characteristic at both individual and society level. At the individual level it refers to two different aspects: the number of social relations that people have in society and whether people in general believe that others in the group, organization or society can be trusted and they themselves be seen as trustworthy by other individuals. At the societal or community level, social capital includes measures of the intensity and number of social connections that people have in society, the level of common norms and values held by people and whether they trust in others and in social organizations important for the cohesion of society. The intensity of social networks, the level of participation and attitudes towards other people are thus the most important dimensions in discussing social capital, but these are also basic dimensions in understanding society and its basic institutions. In the debate on civil society and social capital it has been argued, on the one hand, that a large public welfare sector tends to crowd-out private obligations such as voluntary work, familial support and informal care activities, all of which is leading to a decline in the social commitment of citizens and of civic participation in civil society. On the other hand, it has also been argued that welfare state retrenchment will not restore civic participation/social capital. Instead, it is argued that modern welfare states use non-profit organizations and voluntarism to supplement public welfare services and have invested in these types of activities by offering them financial support and organizational facilities. Therefore, a high and growing level of voluntarism has often been registered in periods of welfare state expansion. Most empirical studies find that the level of volunteering in all European countries is growing or is at least stable, while there has been a decline in the institutional membership of the more conventional non-profit organizations, e.g. political parties, unions, charity organizations, and so on. Instead, we have seen a growing affiliation to grassroots organizations at community level, single-case organizations dealing with, for example, environmental issues and counselling groups, where membership is not a precondition for being active participants. When considering social networks and their importance for social participation and the capability of building a coherent society, the more informal and unstructured types of voluntary activity are just as important as the institutional types of volunteering. In this context,