Mapping social capital across Europe: findings,trends and methodological shortcomings of cross-national surveys

Abstract

Two sets of issues are elaborated and reflected on. The first one concerns the distribution of stocks of social capital across European (EU) nations. Using the conventional proxies like trust and associational involvement on the basis of data from cross-national surveys (European Values Study and European Social Survey as well as from Eurobarometer), the main tentative trends and patterns are outlined. The second set of issues refers to the quality and credibility of data. Concerning the first issue, it is possible to speak of four groups of countries with regard to the distribution of social capital at the European level. In contrast to authors who argue that there are no large differences in mean scores across the national patterns, this analysis arrived at more differentiated conclusions. Between the first and fourth groups, a very clear borderline can be drawn, while differences between the second and third groups are not so pronounced. In the context of the thematizing and critical reflection of the validity and comparability of the empirical evidence, some errors and inconsistencies were found. It seems that they appeared in part due to the inappropriate technical design of cross-national surveys and in part because of the countries-specific semantic-cultural as well as institutional factors, which did receive much attention either in the stage of preparing and conducting the survey or in the phase of interpreting and generalizing of the data.

Deux grands ensembles de questions sont ici posées et discutées. Le premier ensemble concerne la distribution des réserves de capital social au sein des nations européennes (UE). En utilisant des indicateurs conventionnels tels la confiance ou l'implication associative et sur la base d'études trans-nationales (European Values Study, European Social Survey, Eurobaromètre), l'auteur identifie les tendances et les grandes lignes directrices. Le deuxième ensemble de questions concerne la qualité et la fiabilité des données. Pour ce qui est du premier point, on peut regrouper les pays européens en quatre grands groupes en fonction de la distribution du capital social. Contrairement à certains auteurs qui soutiennent qu'il n'y a pas de différence notable dans les scores moyens par pays, l'auteur tire, lui, des conclusions différentes. Une frontière nette sépare le premier et le quatrième groupe, tandis que les divergences entre le second et le troisième groupe n'apparaissent pas clairement. L'analyse thématique et la réflexion critique sur la validité et la comparabilité des données empiriques révèle des erreurs et des incohérences. Celles-ci proviennent en partie de la définition technique inadéquate des études trans-nationales et en partie de facteurs sémantiques et culturels propres à chaque pays, ainsi que de facteurs institutionnels auxquels on a plus ou moins prêté attention soit au stade de la préparation et de la conduite de l'étude soit dans la phase d'interprétation et de généralisation des données.

Keywords

Associational involvement Comparative research European Social Survey (ESS)European Values Study (EVS)Generalized trust Social capital Quality of data

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