Social Capital Benchmark Survey Research Articles

Community Social Capital and Entrepreneurship

The literature on social capital and entrepreneurship often explores individual benefits of social capital, such as the role of personal networks in promoting self-employment. In this article, we instead examine social capital’s public good aspects, arguing that the benefits of social trust and organization memberships accrue not just to the individual but to the community at large. We test these arguments using individual data from the 2000 Census that have been merged with two community surveys, the Social Capital Benchmark Survey and the General Social Survey. We find that individuals in communities with high levels of social trust are more likely to be self-employed compared to individuals in communities with lower levels of social trust. Additionally, membership in organizations connected to the larger community is associated with higher levels of self-employment, but membership in isolated organizations that lack connections to the larger community is associated with lower levels of self-employment. Further analysis suggests that the entrepreneurship-enhancing effects of community social capital are stronger for whites, native-born residents, and long-term community members than for minorities, immigrants, and recent entrants.

Demographic Determinants of Perceived Barriers to Community Involvement

Communities all rely to some degree on residents to serve in and lead the local organizations that make those communities vital. Recognizing barriers experienced by specific groups helps community leaders identify why various groups do not participate. Using data from the 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey, this analysis examines perceived barriers to community involvement among individuals in rural and urban areas. Findings are generally consistent with earlier research into volunteer behavior, but, among several unexpected findings, we note that parents and employed people are more likely to lack the information they think they need, and minority group members, net of other characteristics, feel unwelcomed and ineffective. Patterns sometimes differ for rural and urban places, particularly when comparing men and women. The results highlight barriers that community leaders can seek to reduce and suggest areas where further place-based research could be beneficial.

The Effects of Social Disorganization and Police Force Size on Police Performance

This study explores the effects of social disorganization and police force size on police performance, by paying particular attention to a typology of police performance that emphasizes the importance of capturing the various dimensions of performance in an organization. The author suggests that police performance should be categorized along two dimensions: the nature of the performance indicator (output or outcome) and the objective of policing strategy (crime reduction and citizen satisfaction). The author argues that outcome-related police performance is influenced by social disorganization and output-related police performance is influenced by police force size, and tests these hypotheses with data from the Social Capital Benchmark Survey, Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics, and the Uniform Crime Report. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Promoting Community Leadership Among Community Foundations: The Role of the Social Capital Benchmark Survey

· Faced with increased competition for donors and calls for measurable impact, many community foundations (CFs) are adopting a more proactive, strategic approach to philanthropy – one that has come to be known as "community leadership."

Participation and the Pursuit of Sustainability in U.S. Cities

This article explores the relationship between political and civic participation and the pursuit of sustainability in American cities. Some have argued that cities that exhibit more participation, engagement, and bridging social capital are more likely to pursue policies and programs designed to achieve greater sustainability. Others have posited alternative explanations, especially explanations related to resources, socioeconomic status, and economic growth. Using the Social Capital Benchmark Survey cities—10 of which have extensive sustainability programs, 5 of which have modest programs, and 12 of which have virtually no sustainability programs at all—as the source of comparison, this research finds that cities that are most committed to pursuing sustainability policies do tend to be more participatory places with respect to signing petitions, participating in demonstrations, belonging to local reform groups, and joining neighborhood associations, even controlling for personal income and other factors.

Diversity, Macrosociology, and Religious Belonging: Using Mixed-Level Models in Examining Spatial Variation and the Closed Community Thesis

In the past decade, a number of researchers have been interested in both the predictors and causal effects of civic involvement (Blanchard 2007; Funk 1998; Putnam 1993; Putnam 2000; Tolbert, Lyson, and Irwin 1998). Considerable attention has been paid to the effect that religious involvement has on the development of closed and tight-knit communities (Blanchard 2007; Iannaconne 1988, 1994; Porter and Brown 2008; Putnam 1993; Wuthnow 2002). The diversity of friendships gives us a good proxy for the degree of closeness created by existing in-group dynamics formed as a consequence of closed social communities. Data from the 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey, concerning individuals from 41 localities across the United States, was used in this analysis (Roper 2000). Furthermore, local-level variables concerning the rate of religious adherence were introduced as a way of better understanding potential multilevel effects. My findings support a number of these, showing that religious group membership significantly lowers an individual's diversity of friendships when compared to the effect of belonging to other groups.

African and European American Women's Volunteerism and Activism: Similarities in Volunteering and Differences in Activism

This study focused on volunteerism and activism of African and European American women. This study explored potential differences in the level and nature of civic engagement between African and European American. Additionally, differences in those factors that determine civic engagement activities between the women were examined. African American and European American female participants in the 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey provided the data for this study (Saguaro Seminar, 2001). African and European American women did not differ in the extent to which they reported working on community projects and volunteering in their places of worship. However, their patterns of activism differed. Implications for social work practice were addressed.

Civic Culture as a Policy Premise: Appraising Charlotte’s Civic Culture

ABSTRACT:The importance of a community’s culture—a combination of its political, governmental, economical, and social conditions—is believed important for understanding the power, value, and decision making systems of communities. In this research, using the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County as a case example, the goal is to determine not whether a civic culture exists, but what type of civic culture is present. By speaking to political and civic leaders, examining local strategic documents charting courses for the city, and examining data from the national Social Capital Benchmark Survey, a collective identity of the shared perspective of Charlotte’s direction is determined. Based on results from this analysis, Charlotte’s civic culture projects as an “active market culture” that is manifest through a civic culture that embraces tradition, supports the private sector, favors orderly, participatory processes, and emphasizes rational decision-making.

Social interaction and urban sprawl

Various authors, most notably Putnam [Putnam, R.D., 2000. Bowling Alone. Simon and Schuster, New York], have argued that low-density living reduces social capital and thus social interaction, and this argument has been used to buttress criticisms of urban sprawl. If low densities in fact reduce social interaction, then an externality arises, validating Putnam's critique. In choosing their own lot sizes, consumers would fail to consider the loss of interaction benefits for their neighbors when lot size is increased. Lot sizes would then be inefficiently large, and cities excessively spread out. The paper tests the premise of this argument (the existence of a positive link between interaction and density) using data from the Social Capital Benchmark Survey. In the empirical work, social interaction measures for individual survey respondents are regressed on census-tract density and a host of household characteristics, using an instrumental-variable approach to control for the potential endogeneity of density.

Social capital and civic action: A network-based approach

We propose that social capital, defined as resources embedded in individual and organizational networks, produces expressive and instrumental civic actions. The 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey data were used to examine the hypothesis. Structural equation modeling confirmed that (1) individual social capital was the consistent and significant predictor of both expressive and instrumental civic actions; (2) organizational social capital played the most important role in predicting instrumental civic actions, although it was not significant in predicting expressive civic actions; and (3) civic actions are gendered: women were more likely to be involved in expressive civic actions, but the female dominance disappeared in the realm of instrumental civic actions.

A Multilevel Analysis of Key Forms of Community- and Individual-Level Social Capital as Predictors of Self-Rated Health in the United States

Communities may be rich or poor in a variety of stocks of social capital. Studies that have investigated relations among these forms and their simultaneous and combined health effects are sparse. Using data on a sample of 24,835 adults (more than half of whom resided in core urban areas) nested within 40 U.S. communities from the Social Capital Benchmark Survey, correlational and factor analyses were applied to determine appropriate groupings among eight key social capital indicators (social trust, informal social interactions, formal group involvement, religious group involvement, giving and volunteering, diversity of friendship networks, electoral political participation, and non-electoral political participation) at each of the community and individual levels. Multilevel logistic regression models were estimated to analyze the associations between the grouped social capital forms and individual self-rated health. Adjusting the three identified community-level social capital groupings/scales for one another and community- and individual-level sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics, each of the odds ratios of fair/poor health associated with living in a community one standard deviation higher in the respective social capital form was modestly below one. Being high on all three (vs. none of the) scales was significantly associated with 18% lower odds of fair/poor health (odds ratio = 0.82, 95% confidence interval = 0.69-0.98). Adding individual-level social capital variables to the model attenuated two of the three community-level social capital associations, with a few of the former characteristics appearing to be moderately significantly protective of health. We further observed several significant interactions between community-level social capital and one's proximity to core urban areas, individual-level race/ethnicity, gender, and social capital. Overall, our results suggest primarily beneficial yet modest health effects of key summary forms of community social capital, and heterogeneity in some of these effects by urban context and population subgroup.

The Configuration of Local Economic Power and Civic Participation in the Global Economy

In this paper we test the hypothesis that local economic concentration is associated with decreased levels of civic participation. We define economic concentration as a social context in which a small number of corporate establishments or industries dominate a local economy. We argue that economic concentration leads to a monolithic power structure and generates civic apathy because the needs of the corporation override those of the local population. To test this hypothesis, we employ combined data from the 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey and the County Business Patterns. Our findings indicate that local economic concentration is negatively associated with traditional electoral participation and protest activities. We conclude by discussing implications for current theoretical work on civic community, embedded within the empirical decline in U.S. civic engagement over the past three decades.

Structural Antecedents to Knowledge and Participation: Extending the Knowledge Gap Concept to Participation

This paper investigates relationships between community characteristics and levels of knowledge and participation examined at both the individual and the community levels. This research extends the knowledge gap concept to a parallel phenomenon, the participation gap. Results from the Social Capital Benchmark Survey 2000 showed that community density, education, and cohesion were significant positive predictors of knowledge but less consistent predictors of participation at the individual level. At the community level, relationships were even stronger, though cohesion was associated with higher mean levels of participation and reduced participation gaps, whereas population density was associated with lower levels of participation and increased gaps.

Dimensions of Social Capital and Rates of Criminal Homicide

Robert Putnam comprehensively analyzes the multidimensional nature of social capital and makes a persuasive argument for its relevance to various community social problems, including violent crime. However, systematic empirical evaluations of the links between the multiple dimensions of social capital and violence are limited by the lack of adequate measures. Using data from the Social Capital Benchmark Survey, the authors model the relationships between several dimensions of social capital and homicide rates for 40 U.S. geographic areas. Their findings show that many forms of social capital highlighted in the literature as having beneficial consequences for communities are not related to homicide rates. Two dimensions of social capital, social trust and social activism, do exhibit significant associations with homicide rates, net of other influences. However, in the latter case, the relationship is positive, and in both cases, simultaneous equation models suggest that these dimensions of social capital are consequences as well as causes of homicide. The results underscore the importance of examining the different dimensions of social capital and assessing their reciprocal relationships with homicide and other social outcomes.

Identity Politics and Local Political Culture

Using the Social Capital Benchmark Survey (SCBS) data sets, the authors conducted a multilevel comparative study of identity politics and political culture in the United States and 30 urban communities. Analysis showed that gender, race, class, and religion predict political ideology, electoral behavior, and political protest in the national sample. Replications in the community samples, however, revealed significant differences in the patterns of relationships among those variables. Some patterns deviated markedly from the national norm, particularly with respect to race as a predictor of political protest. Using an index of new political culture, the authors show that “place matters” as a contextual influence on the strength and direction of relationships between social identity (particularly race and religion) and political outcomes.

The Impact of Social Capital on Labor Force Participation: Evidence from the 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey

Objectives. Few studies apply the concept of social capital to labor force participation. In this research, I study the relationship between friendship networks and labor force participation as represented by employment and hours worked. Methods. I test five hypotheses representing social capital with network structure, network quality, and network diversity using nationally representative data from the 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey. Since this survey enables comparisons across racial/ethnic and gender groups, I am also able to specify how social capital interacts with race/ethnicity and gender to influence labor force participation, while controlling for other prominent theoretical concerns such as human capital theory. Results. I find that friendship networks are generally positively related with increased labor force participation. Further, I find significant social capital differences based on race/ethnicity and gender. Conclusions. I illustrate that social capital can be applied across a broader racial/ethnic/gender spectrum. The findings suggest that programs that attempt to bring valuable labor market information to individuals and communities lacking employment–related information are likely to be effective in reducing inequality, especially if combined with programs for developing human capital.