Author:

Keywords:

social capital, well-being, context, spatial analysis

Abstract:

This dissertation investigates the role of social capital and context in well-being. Social capital is seen as the resources embedded in social networks. Well-being is investigated both at the individual level, in the form of satisfaction with life, and at the community level, through crime and suicide levels. To conceptualize strength and closeness of social ties, the distinction between bonding and bridging social capital is used throughout the dissertation. Bonding capital refers to the supportive resources embedded in close and strong ties between similars, existing mainly between kin and close friends, while bridging social capital consists of the informational and instrumental resources embedded in weaker ties between socially or culturally different people.A first important finding is the extent to which social relations themselves are influenced by their context. It can be said that, despite strong tendencies towards homophily, a diverse context has an additional influence on personal network diversity. This illustrates that weak ties too are in part local, and the geographical context still plays a role in their composition in this age of globalization and virtual social networks. Close and intensive ties, providing emotional support, are the most important factor in explaining individual subjective well-being. Living with a partner can be seen as a central indicator of bonding ties providing emotional support. Large socio-economic inequalities have a negative influence on well-being and health, even for those holding a better societal position. While subjective well-being is directly and indirectly influenced strongly by the quality, more than the quantity, of bonding social capital one has, contextual effects are limited and only occur when large inequalities between communities exist.Shifting the level of analysis from individual well-being to community well-being, two classical indicators associated with the quality of life in a community, suicide and crime rates, and their relation with social integration are investigated. Social integration consists of the community level aspects of social relations in different life domains. Suicide rates tend to be higher in communities with higher proportions of single households, an older population and a negative net migration. These elements together indicate a higher risk for social isolation, a fertile ground for suicidal behavior. Crime on the other hand is related more to income inequality and unemployment, indicators for deprivation and exclusion from the job market. Both suicide rates and property crime can be seen as contagious community level phenomena, in the sense that communities are influenced by the suicide and crime level of their direct environment. While for suicide this might point in the direction of imitation, or at least of higher tolerance and acceptance for suicide in regions where rates are high, the contagion effect in property crime rates might point to the mobility of crime, which manifests itself as a spill-over effect. Violent crime rates are notcontagious, but seem to be spatially concentrated in regions larger than a municipality. In summary it can be confidently stated that social relations are related to different indicators of well-being. Subjective individual well-being is related to bonding social capital, while community well-being on the other hand is associated more with social integration in the private or public domain for suicide and crime rates respectively.