Social capital and voluntary associations

Voluntary associations are a critical source of network-based social capital because they offer a special context wherein their members can create and expand social relations. These new social relations are apart from basic social ties people naturally form in their places of living, schooling, and work. Joiners in voluntary associations thus acquire privileged access to a conduit of social capital at the organizational level. Although belonging to voluntary associations seems much dependent on personal and random choices people make regarding whether to spend their time on a certain communal, civic, or public cause, its consequence can be exclusionary because it may expand social ties and network-based social capital of joiners. Therefore voluntary associations can paradoxically create inequality in social capital between joiners and nonjoiners. This chapter examines the relationship between voluntary associations and inequality of social capital across various countries using a multinational data set.