Social Capital and Subjective Social Status: Heterogeneity within East Asia

Abstract

Previous studies have documented the associations of objective class with either social capital or subjective social status, yet little attention has been paid to the direct connections between social capital and subjective social status. This study highlights social capital as an essential source of subjective social status, particularly in East Asia, whose member societies have shared similarities but also developed distinctive social and cultural contexts. We investigate how individuals differently perceive their own subjective social status by their social capital and hypothesize that such associations vary across four societies. By analyzing Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, and Japanese samples of the 2012 East Asian Social Survey, we examine bonding, bridging, and cognitive dimensions of social capital and their connections to subjective perceptions of social status, after controlling for objective class measures. As hypothesized, the results underscore the varying patterns of the associations between social capital and subjective social status across four societies. For instance, individuals who develop wider social connections with people occupying high-status occupations tend to rank themselves higher on a subjective social-status scale in Chinese societies only, where social connections particularly play an important role. Having trustworthy relatives and friends is associated with higher subjective social status in Taiwan and Korea, where members are less tolerant of ambiguity than China. None of the social capital measures matters in Japan, the most individualistic society in East Asia. The findings of this study improve our understandings of subjective social status by emphasizing individuals’ embeddedness in social relationships and broader cultural contexts.