Search

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a widespread need for social support. Similar to previous crises, we can observe activation in society to meet these needs: citizens have offered practical, emotional, and financial support, often within their social networks, but also to strangers and civil society organizations. In this paper, we examine the role of social capital in receiving social support during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany using unique micro-level survey data. We investigate the importance of three aspects of social capital – the size of one's support network, social trust, and organizational membership – for receiving (sufficient) social support. We focus on three types of support networks: family and friends, neighbors, and civil society actors. First, we find that while all three elements of social capital matter for receiving social support, a larger support network and organizational embeddedness matter primarily for receiving support beyond family and friendship networks. Second, civil society actors have been less likely to provide sufficient support in the pandemic, mainly acting in addition to strong ties and providing complementary support for individuals in particular need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contributing to research on civil society elites in the EU context, this article focuses on the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). It explores who the main actors are, what roles they play, and what resources they use, value, and compete for in this arena. The theoretical starting points are grounded in Bourdieu's notions of field and capital and a Goffmanesque approach to drama. Based on semi-structured interviews with EESC members and administrators, observations at EESC meetings, and document analysis, the study explores the types of capital linked to different actors and roles, stages, and scripts in the EESC field. The most valued capital across EESC stages are social capital in the form of personal networks, and cultural capital in the form of negotiation skills and issue-specific knowledge. Actors are supposed to follow a script of being pro-European, representing organised civil society in Europe, and aiming at consensus. Being active at the EESC stages, at least in leading roles, gives actors a kind of EESC-specific capital in the form of access to influential EU decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]