Nuances van sociaal kapitaal: een analyse voor het bewegingsmilieu van de ACW-organisaties

Abstract

This chapter analysis one of the most important networks of social organisations in Flanders: the organisations linked with the Christian Workers Movement (CWM). The data of a large sample survey among staff members, volunteers and members are used (N = 1,960). The analysis is focused on the interrelationships between social network variables, value orientations, and indicators of social disintegration, Following Putnam's hypothesis, attention is also paid to the effect of television as 'prime suspect' for 'civil disengagement'. As was expected, participation in social organisations is mostly positively related with trust in others and in future developments, but the effect of it is weaker than the impact of social-background variables as age, education and church involvement. The latter is evidently an important explanatory factor for the participation in the organisations of the CWM. Social localism, this means the embeddedness in the neighbourhood also slows down feelings of distrust and unsafety. Why nuances? Theoretically one can expect positive effects of social conformism on social integration, but the opposite is true. Those who emphasise values as obedience to authorities, common courtesy and respect (this is called 'vertical collectivism') are more likely to score high on the indicators of social disintegration. As to the role of television, we observed a contrastive effect depending on the kind of programmes. Those who use television for information score slightly lesser on the social disorientation scale, contrary to those who watch television mostly for entertainment.