CLASS AND SOCIAL CAPITAL IN EUROPE

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to understand the way in which social capital resources are incorporated, appropriated and distributed by different social classes in Europe. Its main goal is to produce a conceptual framework by linking the concepts of social capital with the different theoretical assessments made by the sociology of social classes. We use multivariate analysis to work a set of quantitative indicators from the European Social Survey 2008 in order to assess the relationship between these concepts. Our methodological approach combines transnational levels, i.e., it is not an international comparison between European countries but an analysis of individual people and their belonging to social classes.

Keywords:

• class
• social capital
• social space
• Europe

Notes

¹ACM class categories: Employers and executives, are employers or directors at private companies or in the public administration. They may be recruited from any of the groups in the occupational structure. Private Professionals are self-employed and very qualified in certain specialized professions, such as lawyers, architects, etc. Professionals and managers are employees in upper or mid-level intellectual, scientific and technical jobs. They are different from the previous category essentially because they are not self-employed. Self-employed workers work on their own account without employees in administrative or similar occupations in services and commerce. They include craftsmen and similar workers, farmers and qualified workers in agriculture and fishery. Routine employees are administrative and similar personnel, service employees and salespeople. Industrial workers are manual workers employed in less qualified occupations in construction, industry, transports, agriculture and fishery.

²This transnational European analysis of classes does not highlight the level of class structures, though they are an essential analytical level and reflect important national specificities, depending on the greater or lesser weight of certain class locations. For a deeper comparative analysis between class structures see Wright (1997) and Costa et al. (2009).

³An index was constructed from the following variables: ‘Would you say that most people can be trusted, or that you can't be too careful in dealing with people?; ‘Do you think that most people would try to take advantage of you if they got the chance, or would they try to be fair?’; and ‘Would you say that most of the time people try to be helpful or that they are mostly looking out for themselves?’ (Cronbach's α = 0.802)

⁴The index was constructed from the level of trust that Europeans have expressed in relation to their national parliaments, legal system, police, politicians and parties (Cronbach's α = 0.906).

⁵The question in the European Social Survey was: ‘How often do you meet socially with friends, relatives or work colleagues?’

⁶The question in the European Social Survey was: ‘Compared to other people of your age, how often would you say you take part in social activities?’

⁷People were asked whether they were or had ever been a member of a trade union or similar organisation.

⁸The question asked in the ESS was: ‘Are you a member of any political party?’

⁹Values ranging from 0 (lowest) to 10 (maximum value).

¹⁰This distribution seems to show different positions in the social area of work.

¹¹‘Discrimination measures quantify the variance of each variable, and so the closer its value is to the upper limit (i.e., 1), the more the variables in question discriminate the objects being analysed’ (Carvalho 2008: 75).

¹²In the multiple-correspondence analysis, the dimensions found are the main structural axes that configure the different positions of the social categories present in the social space in question.