Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen

Bridge Over Troubled Water? Migration and Social Capital

The problem of integrating non-Western immigrants into Western welfare states is the focus of this paper. To address this issue, we suggest a social capital approach in which we apply the conceptual pair of bridging social capital (BR), which connects an individual to the broader social structure, and bonding social capital (BO), which closely binds an individual to his or her narrow social group. By this we hope to grasp both the sunny and the more shadowy side of network cooperation and trust in relation to the integration of immigrants. Our data, on non-Western immigrants in Denmark, show a positive relationship between the levels of bridging and bonding capital, suggesting that bonding social capital in the immigrant group does not seem to impede the establishment of the bridging social capital needed for integration.

On the wealth of nations: Bourdieuconomics and social capital

Why are some countries richer than others? We suggest in the line of political economy theory that traditional production factors cannot explain the observed differences. Rather, differences in the quality of formal institutions are crucial to economic wealth. However, this type of political economy theory accentuating the role of formal institutions cannot stand on its own. This implies a socio-economic approach in the study where we supplement the formal institutional thesis with Bourdieu’s idea of material and non-material forms of capital. Such new socio-economics – which might be termed a “Bourdieuconomics” – implies the usage of a capital theory that, methodologically, operates with material and non-material forms of capital at the same level. Here, we stress the particular importance of a non-material form of capital, namely social capital, which facilitates informal human exchange, thereby “lubricating” civic society and the voluntary provision of collective goods such as trust and predictable behavior. In this way, social capital reduces transaction costs in society, thereby enhancing economic growth and the creation of differences in the wealth of nations. Future research should therefore be directed towards analyses of a new and formerly disregarded production factor, socialcapital, within a new field of socio-economics, namely “Bourdieuconomics.”

The Troika of Sociology, Political Science and Economics

Contents: Preface 1. The Troika of Sociology, Political Science and Economics Gert Tinggaard Svendsen and Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen PART I: WHY COOPERATION? CLASSICAL EXPLANATIONS 2. The Meaning of Social Capital and its Link to Collective Action Elinor Ostrom and T.K. Ahn 3. Cooperation: Evidence from Experiments Anders Poulsen 4. Grid-Group Analysis D. Douglas Caulkins PART II: WHY COOPERATION? RECENT EXPLANATIONS 5. Social Capital in the Brain? Michael Bang Petersen, Andreas Roepstorff and SA ren Serritzlew 6. Humour Peter Gundelach 7. Religio-philosophical Roots Ralph Weber PART III: CORRUPTION AND THE QUALITY OF INSTITUTIONS 8. Corruption Eric M. Uslaner 9. Social Capital: The Dark Side Peter Graeff 10. Social Capital in East-Central Europe Natalia Letki PART IV: THE WELFARE STATE 11. The State Francisco Herreros 12. The Universal Welfare State Bo Rothstein 13. The Nordic Welfare State Thora Margareta Bertilsson and Christian Hjorth-Andersen PART V: THE ROLE OF THE STATE 14. Tax Compliance Lars P. Feld 15. The Environment Kim Mannemar SA nderskov 16. The Labour Market Fabio Sabatini PART VI: MIGRATION AND INTEGRATION 17. Locational Choice, Ethnicity and Assimilation Gil S. Epstein 18. Making Integration Work Peter Nannestad PART VII: THE ECONOMY 19. Economic Inequality Henrik Jordahl 20. Economic Growth Christian BjA rnskov 21. The Macro Perspective on Generalized Trust Martin Paldam PART VIII: MEASUREMENT 22. Mixed Methods Assessment Veronica Nyhan Jones and Michael Woolcock 23. The Sociability of Nations: International Comparisons in Bonding, Bridging and Linking Social Capital Roger Patulny 24. Building Social Capital Robert Chase and Rikke NA rding Christensen Index