Social Capital in Voluntary Associations

ABSTRACT

Associations are likely to recruit resource rich individuals and they are places where individuals interact, and thus, are likely to exchange social resources. The paper asks which kinds of associations embed individuals holding many social resources. According to theoretical considerations, I distinguish between bridging and bonding associations. Bridging associations are likely to embed heterogeneous individuals while bonding associations embed homogeneous individuals. Therefore, the range of social resources available inside associations may be higher in bridging than in bonding associations. Thinking about the resource exchanging environment inside the associations, a further distinction of bonding associations seems reasonable: some aim at political goals outside the group (e.g., trade unions or professional organizations) and others focus on developing a nice atmosphere inside the group (apolitical bonding associations like elderly leisure associations). I analyze data from Eurobarometer 62.2 using multilevel analyses. Descriptive analyses indicate that active individuals have access to more social resources than inactive individuals. This relation varies for apolitical and political bonding associations according to the European countries. The multilevel analyses controlling for individual characteristics and country variables indicate that potential resources accessible to individuals active in associations depend on the focus of the associations. While bridging and apolitical bonding associations embed individuals accessing more social resources than non-active individuals, political bonding associations are not likely to embed resource rich individuals.

Key words:

• social capital
• social resources
• voluntary associations

Acknowledgments

For their valuable comments I thank Petra Böhnke, Holger Lengfeld, Sara Schmidt, Jessica Ordemann and Clemens Ohlert as well as the two anonymous reviewers. Besides I am very grateful that I had the chance to carry out parts of this work at the European Data Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (EUROLAB) – GESIS. Access to the EUROLAB was supported by the European Community under the ‘Structuring the European Research Area’ specific program Research Infrastructures Action in the 6th Framework Program.

Notes

1. Which is one possible explanation for Bekkers et al.'s (2008) findings that individuals engaged in instrumental associations access high prestige positions and social resources.

2. For an overview about various approaches to measure access to social resources see Häuberer (2011: 223–225).

3. The results are not reported here, but can be requested from the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julia Häuberer

Julia Häuberer is postdoctoral researcher at Universität Hamburg. She received her doctoral degree in sociology at the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Her current research interests are social capital, social structure analysis and European integration.