Prosjekt: Social capital and trust at the individual and cross national level

Varighet: 2005 – 2007

Finansiering: HiO

Prosjektansvarlig: Knut Halvorsen

Project Description

Work Package part II (WP II) explores the link between social capital and social exclusion, both theoretically and empirically.This study will contribute to the development of more valid measures of trust and trustworthiness than the ones commonly utilised. In addition, data for Norway can be used as a benchmark for social capital, especially for the unemployed and for ethnic minority groups that will be compared with findings from the social experiment. We will explore the relationship between ethnic tensions and social solidarity, which serves as a main component in sustaining the welfare state. This study will collect and analyse data at micro and macro levels of investigation.

Research Questions:

• Does the Nordic welfare state presuppose homogeneity in terms of culture and values?
• The majority population may have high generalised trust, but at the same time show distrust in ethnic minorities. This is due to the fact that the majoritpopulation has not had rich enough relationships with ethnic minorities to develop trust (Hardin 2002).These minorities are often regarded as a burden to society, and are suspected of misusing generous welfare schemes. As a consequence, one may ask to what extent immigrants are socially excluded due to various forms of discrimination within the majority population?
• Is there a risk that people with strong ethnic identifications associate primarily with people of their own kind and thus withdraw from civic participation as a form of selfexclusion?

Data and methods

The main data sources are The European Social Survey (2002), the International Social Survey Programme (1999 and 2001), the European Value Study, the Eurobarometer 56.1, as well as data from Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy (data expected to be released in 2004/2005). Data sources for national data are: the OECD Social Expenditure Database, the Mutual Information System on Social Protection in the European Union Member States, Eurostat and the European Commission. Countriesrepresenting all three welfare state regimes will be included. The data will be subject to a multilevel analysis to disentangle compositional and con-textual/national effects as well as interactions between individual and contextual characteristics.