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Community Heterogeneity: A Burden for the Creation of Social Capital?

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  • Hilde Coffé
  • Benny Geys

Abstract

Objective. This study examines the relationship between community heterogeneity and social capital on the local government level. Method. We apply both OLS and interval regression techniques to objective macro data of 307 Flemish municipalities for the year 2000. Results. Our results show that, after controlling for various socioeconomic characteristics of the municipality, income inequality is not significantly correlated with the municipality's level of social capital. We do find a significant negative relation between social capital and the number of nationalities within a municipality. Yet, contrary to the prevailing argument in the literature, it is not the presence of people with a clearly different ethnic‐cultural background that drives this negative relation. Conclusions. In accordance with previous international findings, municipalities with large groups of differing nationalities among its citizenry are confronted with a lower level of social capital. Importantly, however, our findings emphasize the need to distinguish between different groups of nationalities and argue for explanations beyond “simple” ethnic‐cultural disparities.

Suggested Citation

  • Hilde Coffé & Benny Geys, 2006. "Community Heterogeneity: A Burden for the Creation of Social Capital?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 87(5), pages 1053-1072, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:87:y:2006:i:5:p:1053-1072
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2006.00415.x
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    Cited by:

    1. De Juan, Alexander & Koos, Carlo, 2019. "The historical roots of cooperative behavior—Evidence from eastern Congo," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 100-112.
    2. Sunmin Kim & Junehyung Jeon & Youngre Noh & Ayoung Woo, 2024. "Impacts of Streetscape Features on Individual Social Capital: Applying Korea’s Neighborhood Data to Street View Images to Improve Lives of the Socially Vulnerable," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-20, May.
    3. Vassilis Tselios & Philip McCann & Jouke van Dijk, 2017. "Understanding the gap between reality and expectation: Local social engagement and ethnic concentration," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(11), pages 2592-2612, August.
    4. Su, Kun & Wu, Ji & Lu, Yue, 2022. "With trust we innovate: Evidence from corporate R&D expenditure," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    5. Floris Vermeulen & Jean Tillie & Robert van de Walle, 2012. "Different Effects of Ethnic Diversity on Social Capital: Density of Foundations and Leisure Associations in Amsterdam Neighbourhoods," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(2), pages 337-352, February.
    6. Hilde Coffé, 2009. "Social Capital and Community Heterogeneity," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 155-170, April.
    7. repec:hig:wpaper:63/soc/2015 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Lili Wang & Nazife Emel Ganapati, 2018. "Disasters and Social Capital: Exploring the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Gulf Coast Counties," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 99(1), pages 296-312, March.
    9. Geys, Benny, 2012. "Association membership and generalised trust: Are connections between associations losing their value?," Discussion Papers, Research Professorship & Project "The Future of Fiscal Federalism" SP II 2012-101, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    10. Vassilis Tselios & Inge Noback & Philip McCann & Jouke van Dijk, 2015. "Local social engagement, satisfaction, and embeddedness in the Netherlands: which effects matter and for whom?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(5), pages 1132-1154, May.
    11. John Bwalya & Cecil Seethal, 2016. "Neighbourhood context and social cohesion in Southernwood, East London, South Africa," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(1), pages 40-56, January.
    12. Jordahl, Henrik, 2007. "Inequality and Trust," Working Paper Series 715, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    13. Jeremy Mennis & Suzanne Lashner Dayanim & Heidi Grunwald, 2013. "Neighborhood Collective Efficacy and Dimensions of Diversity: A Multilevel Analysis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(9), pages 2176-2193, September.
    14. Alexander Tatarko & Tomas Jurcik, 2021. "Migrant Integration Policies, Perceived Group Threat and Generalized trust: a Case of European Countries," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 705-727, June.
    15. Grießhaber, Nicolas & Geys, Benny, 2011. "Civic engagement and corruption in 20 European democracies," Discussion Papers, Research Professorship & Project "The Future of Fiscal Federalism" SP II 2011-103, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    16. Katarzyna Samson, 2018. "Trust as a mechanism of system justification," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-22, October.

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