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Over the past decade, an increasing number of scholars have reintroduced religion into the study of American politics. Included in this new wave of research is research focused on ‘social capital’ in the United States. The social capital line of research has become interested in religion in part as it is manifest in the rise of Faith Based Organizations (FBOs). While increased scholarly interest in FBOs can serve to invigorate the discussions of how religious Americans shape politics and society, we must carefully note how religion is treated in these emerging social capital studies. What role do religion and Faith play in the social capital framework? What are religion and Faith credited with doing? When are religion and Faith no longer included in the analysis? This paper will attempt to address such questions by presenting a close-reading of Mark R. Warren’s Dry Bones Rattling. The paper makes two central arguments. First, the paper argues that Warren places too much separation between the religious and the political, when in fact the political becomes religious for Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) participants. Second, and building on this distinction between what constitutes the political and religious spheres, it will be argued that although Warren readily acknowledges the role of religion in the IAF, in the final analysis he writes Faith out of the picture. The paper is organized into three sections. Section I provides an introduction to the issues at hand, attempting to address several prominent objections to the paper’s premise. Section II provides the bulk of the analysis, a detailed reading of Dry Bones Rattling text. Section II answers the question, ‘How exactly does Warren write about religion?’ Section III presents a discussion of the implications of the findings in Section II, addressing the question, ‘Why does it matter that Warren treats religion in this way?’ Section II highlights three patterns of note. First, it will be argued that Warren consistently presents a story of social activism that is ‘based’ in Faith, but eventually moves toward a more secular purpose. In one sense, this is the difference between a ‘Faith-based’ vs. ‘Faith-centered’ description of FBOs. Warren treats the idea of ‘Faith-based’ as meaning primariliy that an FBO has its foundation and origin in Faith traditions. He does not give adequate attention to the notion that FBOs are also Faith-centered organizations - always and everywhere aware of God’s presence in their lives and work. Second, and related to the first point, the paper will argue that Warren repeatedly downplays or ignores comments from his research subjects that would point toward a more central role for Faith and God in the IAF’s story. Taking a close look at the way Warren treats these God-centered quotes reveals that although Warren is willing to put the quotes in front of the reader, he is not willing to dwell on the theological content the quotes contain. Third, the paper will suggest that Warren’s references to Sacred Scripture strip the Scriptures of much of what makes them unique to the Faith traditions from which they come. In Section III, the paper will address three important implications of these three patterns in the text. First, because the IAF is not considered as a Faith-centered organization, a false dichotomy is created between the work of the IAF and the Christian Right. The theology of the IAF is not deeply probed, and the theology of the Christian Right remains unchallenged. Second, it will be argued that forcing the IAF into the social capital framework prevents the author from witnessing the whole IAF story. A brief comparison will be made between Warren’s work and Rogers (1990) Cold Anger. Third, the paper will conclude with a brief discussion of the public policy implications of Warren’s analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is theoretically guided by Sharing the Journey (1994). A key finding of Robert Wuthnow’s (1994) work, besides small groups being enclaves of social capital, was the illustration that ‘community is what people say they are seeking when they join small group.’ Reflecting on this scholarship, this paper, qualitatively, through 50 personal interviews with members of small religious groups in the Greater Washington DC area, illustrates that today, in the post-Mosaic digital world, while small groups remain enclaves of social capital, small group participants’ usage of ICTs in recent years- notably email, and to a lesser degree instant messaging and cell phones- has resulted in the drying up of the fluidity in group memberships Wuthnow found in the late 1980s. This is especially true for America’s youngest, and more technologically adept, adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the need to distinguish between more refined types of social capital than the dichotomous categories of ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’ that Putnam uses in his recent work. With the addition of ‘binding’ and ‘blinding’ types of social capital, it becomes possible to more effectively investigate the forms of social capital that exist in societies where both political economy and political culture are different from those in the U.S. and Western Europe. Based on research among four types of social groups in Tanzania - (a) commercial farmers, (b) village farmers, (c) informal sector entrepreneurs, and (d) women - this paper demonstrates the prevalence of the binding type - an informal and shortterm kind of investment - among both village farmers and informal sector entrepreneurs, the bonding type among women, and the bridging type among the commercial farmers. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for building civil society, and places the Tanzanian data in comparative perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks how prestige is assigned to different goods, actions, and achievements in the international arena. In other words, what makes something ?prestigious? and therefore worthy of diplomatic, political, even military competition? It explores different theoretical approaches to ?prestige norms? ? essentially the status symbols of the international system. Four main perspectives are evaluated. The first is a strict materialist approach, reflecting a number of basic assumptions found in many Realist/Neorealist/Neoliberal IR theories. The second and third are ideational approaches that draw from different strands within the constructivist tradition in IR theory. And the fourth is a variant of materialism, based in part upon insights from a ?historical materialist? interpretation of Rousseau’s work on ?amour propre? in domestic society. In addition to these theoretical avenues, the paper also discusses how competing theories of prestige norms might be tested against each other. Potential empirical research directions are examined with the hope of arriving at more broadly applicable claims of interest to academics and policy makers alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers competing explanations for collective action and social capital formation in post-colonial Africa. It examines social capital formation and collective behavior in three African settings (Senegal, Madagascar, and Malawi) from a rational choice and a cultural-institutional perspective. In each case, we see examples of collective action which lend themselves to rational choice analysis. In each case, we see that a rational choice perspective, in pursuit (as Green and Shapiro have noted, 1994) of the two-headed chimera parsimonious-universalism, generates a stylized, coherent, logically compelling and empirically inaccurate explanation of the means by which actors in post-colonial African settings solve collective action. In each case, we see how an approach rooted in a ?thick? or culturalist approach to institutions provides a more complete explanation for how and why collective action dilemmas are overcome in the cases under study. Check author’s web site for an updated version of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the complexities of the intersection of racial and gender construction(s) with respect to the public sphere and private sphere dichotomy. Through the analysis of black women’s social conditions, this paper argues that the historical constructions of race and gender and the historical period of analysis affect the applicability of the "public-private dichotomy" to black women’s experiences. Consequently, racial exclusion and gender discrimination induced black women’s consciousness and their socio-political development. Although social capital theory accounts for the importance of social networks, norms, and trust in building social relations, we need a conceptualization of social capital theory that accounts for the complexities of racial and gender construction(s) and their effect on racially "divided publics," racio-gendered spheres, and racial uncertainty. Therefore, this paper presents black socio-political capital and racio-sexual social capital as frameworks most appropriate for analyzing black women’s conditions during this era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper tests Putnam’s thesis about the role of social capital in promoting political participation in Latin America. Data are drawn from the 1995-97 wave of the World Values Survey for eight Latin American countries. The paper concludes that social capital does encourage political participation in Latin America, but that education drives participation more than other variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In democratic Europe, a distinction has often been drawn between a more corrupt (generally Catholic) south and a less corrupt (generally Protestant) north. The paper challenges the underlying assumption of such generalisations, which rest on culturally relativist notions of embedded norms or social capital as the critical explanatory variable. In utilising instead a contextually sensitive definition of political corruption, it will allow for a focus not only on variations in types of political corruption but also more specifically on the reasons for changing perceptions of the incidence of corruption in contemporary Spain. The central argument is that political corruption is a function of incentives, and that changes in the nature of governance since the return of democracy have generated both new incentives and new opportunity structures for corruption. The paper also discusses the mobilisation of scandal and ?cycles of contestation?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores alternative ways leisure can be politicized. Focusing on working-class sports in early 20th-century Europe, it argues that the different types of politicization reflect different normative visions of civil society and the state. This raises questions about the recent tendency to treat a normative neo-Tocquevillian conception of civil society and the concept of social capital as the obvious explanatory and analytic frameworks about the politics of civil society. Check author’s web site for an updated version of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) on the poor and marginalized has been a matter of debate since the beginnings of the information revolution. Whether or not ICT penetration is causing increased inequality and poverty remains an unresolved puzzle (ICTs, defined broadly in this paper, include TV, radio, Internet and mobile phones). The puzzle stems from small-n studies tending to find that the impact of new ICTs has been positive for the poor, while large-n studies purport the opposite (Forestier, Grace and Kenny 2001). Recent empirical studies suggest the impact of ICT is 'Janus faced'-in some cases emergent ICTs create new opportunities for the poor, while in others they seem to exacerbate the challenges the poor face (Kenny 2006; Huerta, Esperanza and Rodrigo Sandoval-Almazan 2007; Hanson 2008). I argue that the socioeconomic context, and governance, shapes the impact of these emerging technologies. I posit that there is an interaction effect between governance and ICT which is the 'missing link' that plays a central, yet often overlooked, role in determining the impact of ICT on the poor. There are three primary mechanisms influencing how ICT and governance interact: First, ICT affects governance by enhancing opportunities for information sharing through increasing speed of communication, increasing penetration rates, and deepening of technology (Web 2.0); Secondly, ICT affects governance by generating social capital and enhancing civil society; Third, ICT affects governance by improving efficiency. Finally, I make the theoretical leap, digressing from the established literature, that this produces an interaction effect between ICT and governance leading, in general, to better outcomes for the poor. To empirically test these claims, this paper takes a mixed methods approach. First, I conduct a large-n study comparing Mexico to other similar developing countries. Yet to investigate the puzzle in greater depth, I also employ a small-n analysis focusing on the poor in rural and urban Mexico. I compare case studies of ICT access and use by the poor in two urban areas, Guadalajara, Mexico's so-called 'Silicone Vally', and Puebla. Comparative analysis between two rural towns in Oaxaca, confirm the findings of the urban case studies: ICT access and use among the poor can be enhanced through an interaction with governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political scientists have long been interested in the development of trust in social institutions. It is thought that trust supports the development of social capital, fosters participation in government, and a variety of other positive behaviors. Most of this literature, though, stages trust in government at a general level: trust in the entire system of government and entire levels of government (local, state, federal). However, we propose that trust may be held in specific administrative organizations rather than (or in addition to) systemically and that this element of trust is related to the acceptance of messages about risk technology. This paper focuses on the contribution of trust in political institutions on the acceptance of policy information. With a nationally representative public opinion survey, we have conducted a survey experiment that randomized treatments of three levels of risk and three potential messengers of risk information (including the EPA) in relation to fracking. We have found that the randomized treatment for risk intensity is a significant predictor for support for fracking but that the identity of the messenger does not matter. The results suggest that the identity of the EPA is a weak signal at the level of a specific communication. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this work for public managers who rely on public compliance or public communication to accomplish their organizations' missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its inception into American politics, the Internet has been a source of great debate for scholars in numerous fields. Many scholars feel the jury is still out in considering questions such as the Internet's ability to better deliberative democracy, heighten social capital, and encourage citizens into the political system. Questions still surround our ability to determine the Web's potential versus actual influence in these and other topics of American politics. In attempt to offer answers to some of these outstanding questions, this paper offers new insight into how social capital is created on the Web. Drawing on a case study of the 2006 Connecticut Senate election, including an in-depth interview and content analysis of YouTube videos, this paper points to the Internet as an important contributor in unseating Joe Lieberman from his position in the Democratic Party. I argue that four main characteristics of challenger Ned Lamont's digital campaign earned him substantial social capital from his blog supporters. These four characteristics are valuing a Web presence, embracing interactivity, empowering the liberal blogosphere, and maintaining relations with this blogosphere in the post-election era. I also describe how political history dating back to the 2004 election caused incumbent Joe Lieberman to take a very conservative approach to his online campaign, thus limiting him from attaining such social capital.This research demonstrates that, while it may not be the end-all-be-all solution for scholars who see a decline in deliberative democracy and social capital, the Internet does have the power to play an important role in the revitalization of American politics. Although only a single case, the Lamont campaign gives us perspective and encouragement on how social capital can not only be build online, but also maintained. With the Internet still in its infancy in our politics, time will tell how widespread this type of impact will be in the future. By examining future candidates at different levels of government, scholars will be able to better understand other characteristics that may or may not attribute to the construction of social capital online. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political parties seek power in order to accomplish their goals. Raw electoral power is commonly used as an indicator of political party power. However, such a distinction fails to capture the complexity of how parties move from setting goals to achieving them. Scholars such as William Riker (Riker 1962) and Michael Leiserson (Leiserson 1968) view political parties as power-seekers, yet power for them is not limited to electoral results or votes but extends to the overall picture of parties holding positions of influence both in the foreground of representative government but also importantly in the background as strategists, advisors, agency chiefs, and other appointed positions. Parties and their members often work to occupy a variety of positions that may appear less than prominent as they work behind the scenes at building their social capital and enabling their policy agenda. Even though scholars have traditionally presented policy-seeking as a supplementary goal to office or vote-seeking (Axelrod 1970; Lijphart 1984; Luebbert 1986), this paper suggests that policy and outcomes are frequently the focus of parties as they realize that back channels can provide the ability to accomplish policy goals. This paper examines the role of power and positioning as parties work toward goal attainment. It considers both intra-party competition and cooperation as parties work toward their desired policy outcomes. It argues that effective parties are critically aware of their relationship to other parties in their party system as they craft their platform and strategy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper questions the links between social capital and political engagement, arguing that previous work in the field is characterized by a gap between the theory of social capital and empirical tests of the effects of the concept. The paper outlines how social capital might be more fruitfully measured and operationalized as a community-level attribute and then tests a number of the claims made about the connection between social capital and individual political engagement by analyzing data on participation in American cities. Preliminary results indicate that once we control for political institutions there is relatively little variance in the dependent variable across communities left to be explained by social capital. That is, much of the evidence for a social capital explanation of political participation evaporates once we control for institutional and other contextual factors. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to our understanding of two important puzzles: the causal mechanism linking social capital to government performance, and the role of institutions as compared to the cultural variables explaining performance. In order to tackle these puzzles, the concept of government performance is disaggregated into two dimensions: policy responsiveness and administrative effectiveness. The effect of social capital vs. institutional variables on either of these variables is then assessed. Empirical tests with data from the U.S. and German sub-national governments provide support for the linkage between social capital and the policy responsiveness attribute of government performance. This finding supports the causal argument that social capital increases the level of political sophistication and facilitates the cooperation within society, helping people to voice their policy demands better. Further, the analysis finds no empirical link between the level of social capital and administrative effectiveness. The variance on this dimension is explained by institutional and socio-economic variables. The implication of the latter finding is that a competing causal argument linking social capital to government performance via the behavior of bureaucratic elites is incomplete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars theorize that social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups. Robert Putnam claims to have found support for this theory in his studies of Italy and the United States. In each case he concludes that the presence of social capital - generalized norms of trust and reciprocity - is sufficient to predict progress on a variety of social indicators. Using demographic and public opinion data collected at the state level in the U.S, Putnam links the performance of schools to his measure of social capital. Schools perform best where social capital is found in greater abundance. This paper attempts to replicate Putnam’s finding using data from local communities in North Carolina. Since social contacts and social capital occur at the local level between individuals and groups in a community, a logical extension of Putnam’s work is to verify that these relationships exist locally. I propose and test the following two hypotheses using data from the 100 counties of North Carolina: 1) Students score higher on statewide tests in school districts where social contact is greater among residents; 2) Students drop out of school at lower rates in school districts where social contact is greater among residents. If local evidence exists to support the claim that social contacts matter, then what programs governments fund in the name of social progress may need to be reconsidered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key operationalization of the concept of social capital is the degree to which people believe they can, in general, trust people. Social capital theory maintains that generalized interpersonal trust should promote civic engagement, but research results to date indicate that trust influences engagement either weakly or not at all. Generalized trust may not show an influence on civic engagement because it may contain features that both promote and inhibit collective action. If people trust political and community leaders they may believe there is no need to participate. This paper seeks to find a strong, positive relationship between trust and collective action by developing a measure of specifically political social trust. This measure specifies that other community members are being trusted to abide by norms of political cooperation. The measure is tested using a representative mail survey of 1200 Pittsburgh residents. Ordered probit and regression analyses find political trust superior to generalized trust in predicting reported motivation to act on community problems, participation in organizations in which community problems are discussed, and participation in organizations that take action on community problems. Generalized trust proves superior to political social trust in predicting self-reported attendance at community planning meetings, but such meetings are primarily about communicating concerns to community leaders, not collective political action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An examination of how globalization reshapes social capital and identity, and the implications of this process for democracy, with an empirical focus on the Andean region. The paper first evaluates two interpretations of social capital trends and than examines four key globalization processes relevant to social organization. After reviewing the empirical case, an assessment of the challenges for democracy of the two social capital outcome "models" is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the broader theoretical claim that civil society can be thickened (in democratic ways) with international support and collaboration. Case studies of domestic election monitoring organizations in Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru suggest that internationally supported civic organizations can play an important role in mobilizing political participation. There is less evidence to show that they can consistently fulfill other democratizing functions, such as modeling democratic practices and improving communication between government and citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines determinants of political participation in the new democracies of East-Central Europe (ECE) in mid-1990s. Literature on social capital suggests that trust originating from membership in voluntary associations is crucial for citizens’ participation in politics that, in turn, is decisive for the emergence and consolidation of democracy. At the same time, Communist experience is hypothesized to hamper the development of participatory political culture in the new ECE democracies. Using extensive indicators we analyze the impact of individual-level social capital and membership in a Communist party on several types of participatory activities. Through multi-level analysis we also test the influence of the process of democratization on levels of participation. Our findings suggest that the exposure to the political processes is a vital determinant of respondents’ political participation, thus participatory culture should be understood as a result rather than a determinant of the democratic system. Participation in politics under the non-democratic, communist regime turns out to be very relevant for socializing citizens for participation in a democracy. Finally, social capital, conceptualized as the interaction between social trust and associational membership, is largely irrelevant for political engagement in ECE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I test the claims that government decentralization can strengthen democracy by considering one form of decentralization: the decentralization of health service administration to community boards. Based on comparison of four poor communities in Peru, two of which experienced community-based decentralization of health service administration, and two similar communities that did not, I evaluate whether or not community-based decentralization initiatives do indeed promote or strengthen social capital and local democratic practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the basic assumptions of social capital theory is that social interactions, whether in formal or informal settings lead to socialization into prosocial value patterns, like generalized trust or reciprocity. This assumption thus far has been tested exclusively with adult populations. In doing so, social capital studies tend to ignore the insights of political socialization research, showing that political behaviors and attitudes are already shaped at an early age, and continue to be rather stable during the life cycle. In this article we use a Belgian cross-sectional data set with retrospective questions on youth participation, and a secondary analysis of an American panel study (1965-1982). Our findings suggest that social participation during adolescence has long-lasting effects into adulthood, while other youth experiences matter for adult civic attitudes. These results suggest that social participation has mostly network effects instead of attitudinal effects. Our research advocates that social capital studies should pay more attention to youth research than has been done thus far. Check author’s web site for an updated version of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on how Cuba’s insurrectionary movements at the end of the 19th Century, improvised to overturn a hated and oppressive colonial regime, failed to form a foundation for public life in the post-transition period. My central claim is that rebellions and periods of consolidation depend on the production of different forms of social capital and, more specifically, consolidation requires bridging-facilitating capital that may be almost entirely unnecessary for insurrectionary movements. The Cuban struggle for independence was supported by a variety of social groups, including planters, business groups, trade unions and freedmen. However, in the early years of the Cuban Republic that followed, these actors failed to manufacture the right variety of social capital, or to form the voluntary associations that might have helped bring together Cubans and build trust and teach cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus of the presented paper is to investigate whether the concept of bonding and bridging social capital can be reasonably specified by categorizing voluntary associations according to their constitutive goods, i.e. purposes, and whether this conceptualization will also hold for empirical analysis in the realm of political participation. The empirical findings both for East and West Germany show that memberships of voluntary associations which are conducive either to bonding or bridging social capital indeed affect generalized trust, norms and some forms of political participation differently. By this means, underlying causal structures are revealed. In the future, we might be better able to answer systematically which associations account for which effects on different aspects of social capital and on political participation by applying this concept to empirical research. However, me must concede that the application of the presented concept does not always yield consistent East-West German results. Besides, empirical analyses reveal that norms, as another component of social capital, exert comparably deviating effects on generalized trust and on the inspected scopes of political action, thus stressing the need for differentiation, too. Moreover, an impressive linkage of political trust to some components of social capital can be disclosed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital reflects a way of conceptualizing how cultural, structural, and institutional aspects of small to large groups in a society interact and affect economic and political change. It is a core concept of a synthesizing framework that can be applied whenever collective endeavors of individuals are critical in achieving a collective goal. We identify trustworthiness, networks, and institutions as three basic forms of social capital. theories of collective action, especially its second-generation versions that incorporate heterogeneous preferences of individuals, are the key building blocks in constructing a theoretically sound social capital perspective.We think that one of the most important reasons why the concept of social capital appears to be so ambiguous is an often-unnoticed divide within the social capital camp itself. One set of social capital researchers bestows priority to a group's cultural factors (summarized in this paper as people's trustworthiness). Others maintain the mainstream neoclassical approach in which values and cultural factors are epiphenomenal to structural incentives.We take the non-reductionist view that trustworthiness - a term referring to the characteristics of individual preferences that facilitate individuals to behave cooperatively in social dilemmas even in the absence of structural and institutional incentives to do so - is not only a non-reducible but also a critical form of social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the importance of neighborhood design for explaining political participation and several key ingredients of social capital. Using a survey of residents living in Galway City, Ireland, the analysis compares attitudes of people living in traditional, mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods to those living in modern car-dependent suburban subdivisions. The results indicate that neighborhood type or design has a significant effect on whether residents are motivated to be active politically and socially. The findings suggest that the kind of suburban subdivisions American have been building since the 1950’s (and the Irish are building now) have a negative impact on the degree to which people walk, know their neighbors, feel connected to their community, trust others, and engage themselves socially and politically. The results also suggest that scholars of political action and social capital might be well served to more closely consider the relevance of neighborhood and the built environment in their analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strongest claim of social capital is its likely effect on public policy outcomes, which is now demonstrated by a vast literature linking levels of social trust and social bonds with such desired goods as reduced crime, better economic performance, and improved health. There is already a modest literature linking public policy outcomes with better educational performance, to which the research for this paper seeks to add. By analysing a survey of 1249 15-16 year-olds, we test whether social capital measures increase self-recorded school performance and reduce intentions to leave school. We find that trust, voluntary action and social closure appear to have a strong impact on academic performance, but do not have a great impact on dropping out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether an association exists between individuals' on-line "sense of community" and their political and social attitudes toward off-line community. Using the Social Capital Benchmark Survey (2000), we explore what "sense of community" is found through digital interaction. Our research, theoretically guided by the work of Ferdinard Tönnies, questions whether a "sense of Gemeinschaft," lost off-line to an increasingly differentiated economy, is being re-discovered on-line; or if our cyber interactions are merely the transcription of our Gesellschaft lives online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human consequences of the 3.11 tsunami were not distributed equally across the municipalities of the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan. Instead, the mortality rate from the massive wave varied tremendously from zero to close to ten percent of the local residential population. What accounts for this variation remains a critical question for researchers and policy makers alike. This paper uses a new, sui generis data set including all villages, towns, and cities on the Pacific Ocean side of the Tohoku region to untangle the factors connected to mortality during the disaster. With data on demographic, geophysical, infrastructure, social capital, and political conditions for 133 municipalities, we find that tsunami height, stocks of social capital, and demographic conditions strongly influenced mortality rates. Given the high probability of future large scale catastrophes, these findings have important policy implications for disaster mitigation policies in Japan and abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central research question of this paper is if and how an individual's conception of what constitutes her "community," as in her primary social or group identity, is increasingly independent of the geographic "neighborhood" in which she resides? If so, how might such shifts affect her social capital and her capacity to trust and agree with her neighbors that collective action - political action - is necessary to the well-being of her "community" and/or "neighborhood"? We center our analysis within urban politics and African American politics because we believe there are fundamental ways in which local black class politics and the politics of what has been called the "black urban regime" are both inhibitors of greater neighborhood attachments and in turn affect the ability of these attachments to motivate grassroots engagement in local problems (Shaw et al. 2013; King et al. 2010; Shaw 2009). We analyze the results of an on-line survey of 504 self-identified black persons in the Atlanta metropolitan area including an unique measure we call "Place-Scale Linked Fate" and draw conclusions about the ways in which space and place matter in local black politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Control of corruption in a society is an equilibrium between resources and costs which either empowers or constraints elites predatory behaviour. While most research and practice focuses on legal constraints, this paper investigates normative constraints, deemed to be more important, especially civil society and the press. Fresh evidence, both historical and statistical is found to support Tocqueville's assertions on the importance of collective action and the joint action of media and associations in creating not only a democratic society; but control of corruption. However, little is known on how to build normative constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine the sources of generalized trust as a key component of social capital. We contrast three competing accounts for generalized trust and explore their individual-level implications in the context of East Asia. The analysis shows that social networks, state institutions and cultural values played a varying role in the generalization of trust. Contrary to the networks-based accounts network involvement had limited influence. Similarly, contrary to the cultural accounts, optimism and egalitarianism had more limited influence. In contrast, key features of "good government" such as abidingness and transparency consistently contributed to generalized trust. Yet, not every state institution mattered equally. Especially, institutions of accountability which ultimately assure "good government" had no positive independent influence. East Asian evidence suggests that a law-abiding, transparent and effective lawenforcing government is one of the important institutional conditions for the development of generalized trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much recent literature suggests that promoting social capital and neighborhood organization may be an effective means to stabilize and improve quality of life in some urban neighborhoods (e.g. Sampson 2012). This paper analyzes a hedonic price model of sales prices of residential property in the city of Little Rock from 2007 - 2012 using geocoded data obtained from the Pulaski County tax assessor's office. We use this model to test for the impact of three types of neighborhood governance on property values: an active homeowners' association, an active voluntary neighborhood association, and no formal governance. We find no evidence that either voluntary neighborhood associations or property owners associations increase property values. This could indicate that these institutional forms lack institutional robustness compared to governmental arrangements for serving neighborhoods. In particular, in some cities the boundaries for these associations may not correspond to the boundaries relevant to homeowners and homebuyers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of social capital are still exploring and debating which type of social capital plays what kind of role in shaping economic development and government performance in different economic and political systems at various levels. To contribute to this important exploration and debate, this paper examines the impacts of two types of social capital- generalized and particularized-on the performance of grassroots self-government institutions in urban China based on an original survey of 144 urban neighborhood communities in China's three major cities. The findings indicate that the generalized social capital embodied in the indiscriminative trust and inclusive social networks positively affected the performance of the self-government institutions, while the particularized social capital as manifested in discriminative trust and exclusive social networks negatively impacted such performance. These findings help clarify some theoretical issues and shed some light on the prospects of the local self-government system in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work from the U.S. has demonstrated positive effects of internet use on individuals' levels of sociability which have in turn been linked to the development of democratic behaviors and norms. This paper extends this research by examining the links between internet use, social capital and political engagement in Australia, using data from the 2007 Australian Election Study (AES) which directly replicated questions asked in a 2005 U.S. study (Kittilson and Dalton, 2008). We first measure levels of online interpersonal contacting among Australians, dividing these into bridging and bonding associations and then assess how far such behavior links to democratic engagement in terms of promoting attitudes supportive of democratic institutions and political participation. Our findings show that online social capital and particularly the bonding version is positively associated with levels of political efficacy and active engagement. We conclude that the Australian case provides further support for the argument that the internet offers an important new platform for social group activity that in turn may be helping to foster and sustain democratic norms and activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between sense of community, political and civic participation, and the pursuit of sustainability in American cities. Using the Social Capital Benchmark Survey cities as the source of comparison, it finds that cities pursuing sustainability policies do tend to be more participatory places. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents research that explored the connections between neighborhood characteristics, social capital formation and civic engagement in a new form of common interest development called Cohousing. Cohousing neighborhoods are resident-driven, collaborative projects that cluster homes along pedestrian pathways and employ a range of physical and governance structures aimed at fostering a strong sense of community among residents. This study represents one of the few to examine Cohousing on a national scale.This analysis draws on an Internet-based survey of residents of 57 U.S. Cohousing sites as well as in-depth case analyses of three geographically diverse Cohousing neighborhoods to investigate social capital formation and civic engagement practices in these communities. Survey results indicate high levels of social capital and civic engagement among Cohousing residents, as compared to both nationally representative and demographically similar populations. Preliminary analysis suggests that a range of factors may be implicated in this phenomenon including specific patterns of resident involvement in a variety of forms of community engagement.Social Capital has been much studied in recent years in the fields of urban planning, sociology and political science. Nonetheless, whether and how social capital may be created and supported continues to be vigorously debated. This study contributes to this ongoing discussion by exploring social capital formation and civic engagement within this new form of intentional neighborhood development. Results indicate that a combination of physical design and carefully devised governance structures can indeed have a significant influence on the development of social capital and civic practices of Cohousing community residents. This study highlights both the potential and limitations of looking to intentional neighborhood development strategies as a way of fostering social capital creation and increased civic engagement. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on campaigns has considered a number of factors that affect whether and how someone votes, including demographics, campaign strategies, and social milieu. Understanding the dynamics of campaigns, however, is complicated by the fact that researchers cannot observe much of what happens during an election cycle. Typically, studies rely on voter recollections of conversations, contacts, and media exposure. In addition, because data are collected at discrete points in time, most models of voter turnout cannot capture the dynamic nature of an individual's interactions during a campaign cycle. Agent-based models offer a way to overcome these data limitations by allowing us to model the dynamics of voter turnout over the course of many weeks as individuals move back forth between home and work environments, interacting with neighbors and colleagues. In this paper, we present an agent-based model of campaign dynamics, VODYS, and conduct three simulations to demonstrate the utility of agent-based models for exploring the effects of contact and context on political behavior. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Members of the --long civic generation," or the cohort that came of age around the time of World War II, were especially avid --joiners," whether in the US or other industrialized countries. The reason for this, however, is not well understood. This paper develops and tests a general theory of how international war affects postwar levels of civic engagement. It argues that the state, through wartime mobilization, expands opportunities for work and participation, thus offering important opportunities for citizens' social learning. This learning, in turn, promotes higher levels of voluntary participation that persists long after the shooting ends. The study tests this proposition using both within-country and cross-country quantitative analysis of thirteen countries affected by World War II. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the relation between social cohesion and ethnic and cultural diversity has been hotly debated in political science and in society in general. The general assumption in this literature is that (increasing) ethnic diversity is detrimental for the development of social cohesion, as it inhibits the creation of social capital. Generalized trust is believed to prosper most abundantly in homogenous settings. There is indeed some empirical evidence, suggesting that ethnic diversity reduces trust levels within society. If this is the case, this is indeed a reason for concern as we know that societies with high levels of social capital and generalized can function in a more effective manner than societies where this is not the case.In this paper, we do not wish to go into this empirical discussion. Rather, we want to take a step back and study the concepts of social capital and social cohesion in a more theoretically informed manner. Despite the fact that 'social cohesion' is a key term in a lot of current research, the concept is seldom defined. Our analysis of the concept of social cohesion builds on the work of the French sociologist Emile Durkheim. Already in 1893, Durkheim argued that various forms of society will develop their distinct concepts of cohesion and trust. While pre-modern societies were based on mechanic forms of solidarity, modern societies require organic solidarity, Durkheim argued. The theoretically relevant question is now whether we can take Durkheim's argument a step further by considering what kind of solidarity is essential for the cohesion of contemporary, 'post-modern', or at least ethnically diverse societies? In these societies one can no longer assume that a normative consensus is present and offers a building stone for social cohesion. The question we would like to explore is what kind of functional equivalence for a normative consensus is available in such a diverse setting? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main question addressed in this paper is how the great variation in the level of social trust between different countries can be explained? Most empirical research on this question has been based on survey data which has limits when it comes to capturing the causal mechanisms. Building on theories that point at the importance of trustworthy governmental institutions for creating social trust, two parallel experiments were conducted in two countries were the levels of corruption and social trust are very different. One group of 64 Swedish and one group of 82 Romanian undergraduate students responded to a number of scenarios in which another person's efforts to try to receive immediate assistance from an authority were described. These encounters varied within groups in terms of (1) whether or not a bribe was used in order to receive immediate assistance, (2) whether the other person or the official took the initiative to request/offer immediate assistance in exchange for the bribe, and (3) outcome in terms of whether immediate assistance was approved or declined as a result of the offer or demand for a bribe. Type of authority (police vs. doctor) was a between-groups factor. Subsequent to each scenario, participants' levels of various aspects of vertical and horizontal trust were measured. As hypothesized, the Romanian sample had reliably lower initial levels of horizontal trust than the Swedish sample. For both samples, however, the results showed the expected effects of bribe, initiator, and outcome on all dependent trust measures. The main results showed that bribe, initiator, and approved assistance decreased both vertical and horizontal trust. As such, the results supported the idea that trust in authorities influences the perceptions of the trustworthiness of others in general. Even though some of the effects were stronger for one sample than for the other, the influence of vertical trust on social trust was true for both the high- and the low-trusting sample. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Central Asia where financial services are limited and controlled by the state, microfinancing, which has seen tremendous growth worldwide in the last decade supported by international donors, provides a significant opportunity for economic and political development. Microfinancing offers mechanisms for serving sectors of the economy that the formal financial system usually considers 'unbankable'. Around the world it has shown to be positively correlated with reducing poverty and improving welfare by allowing poor people to protect, diversify and increase their sources of income and assets; safeguarding the poor against extreme vulnerability by smoothing income fluctuations and maintaining consumption levels; improving family expenditures on education, thereby contributing to improving the human capacity; and reducing family expenditures on health. By supporting small scale economic activities, microfinance also helps promote broad economic participation, develop social capital, and empower the economically active poor against the state. This paper attempts to assess the contribution of microfinance to community-building and political participation in Central Asia by examining the main linkages between microfinance and social capital. Despite the fact that the microfinance sector in Central Asia is less than 10 years old with limited outreach and impact, I argue that by encouraging mutual trust and dependence within borrower groups, by providing an alternative to existing corrupt channels of financial services, and by setting support organizations which encourage association between citizens, microfinancing may be starting to contribute to building an economic society that can potentially feed into some increase in political participation and breakdown of the authoritarian hold on political power. In the long run, microfinancing may provide an incredible opportunity for foreign donors to push the forces of democratization in Central Asia by empowering the lower and middle classes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the experience of the Local Governance Project (LGP) in Iraq. The discussion documents how LGP and LGP2 contributed to changing interactions between citizens and government, and reaching across individual social and ethnic groups. In post-war Iraq, such social capital could be a positive contributor. Its potential, however, is limited by the absence of the conditions necessary for stability and reconstruction. Violence and insecurity, the actions of conflict entrepreneurs, and the resiliency of the shadow state raise doubts about the prospects for governance reform. Lessons include: a local governance focus can build reform constituencies resistant to reversal by central-level actors; local governance can provide multiple arenas for contestation thus reducing winner-take-all political dynamics, reformed local governance cannot support democratization without a security and political framework that raises costs of resorting to violence; acceptance of governance reforms depends upon the extent to which they are perceived as effective and legitimate, but such changes are likely to be fragile in post-conflict societies; short-term reconstruction timetables increase the risk of relying on existing power structures and on weak newly-created institutions, which lay an insufficient foundation for fundamental governance reform and new state-society relations. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past five years have seen the development of two major theories regarding racial equality within the American states. Putnam (2000) argues that social capital is positively related to civic and economic equality. Alternatively, Hero (1999, 2003) maintains social capital is negatively related to racial equality, and that social diversity is a prime determinate of state policy outputs and outcomes. Both Putman and Hero have been heavily influenced by Elazar (1966), whose classification of states based upon political culture tends to closely mirror those of both scholars. The degree of similarity between the classifications of states produced by each of these theories has made it difficult for scholars to parse out the individual effects that each has on various measures of equality in the American states. This paper utilizes a panel dataset to test each of these hypotheses simultaneously, in order to determine which explanations (culture, capitol, or diversity) best account for levels civic and racial equality. Hero's argument is dynamic, in that diversity changes over time with the racial/ethnic composition of a state. Meanwhile, Elazar's culture argument is relatively static. Similarly, Putnam treats his state-level social capital index as unchanging, even if overall levels of social capital are declining. Time-series panel data are employed to simultaneously test these hypotheses. These panel data - aggregated at the state-level - measure state diversity, social capital, and equality from 1986 to 2000 and are used to test the validity of the competing explanations of equality and state policy outcomes. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital theory, particularly the work of Robert Putnam, has received a great deal of scholarly and popular attention. We argue that Putnam?s formulation ignores the ways in which race is fundamental and constitutive to the structure and function of social capital in the United States. We suggest an alternative framework, one that focuses on the effects of social relations. Such a framework: (1) treats race as more than an independent variable; (2) addresses the structural factors underlying social capital development; and (3) includes the role of gatekeepers in the process. This approach would allow us to have a more accurate, and nuanced, understanding of how social capital operates in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of communal recreational activities in measures of social capital is often criticized with the complaint that it trivializes civic engagement. These critics, however, ignore a key aspect of social capital theory, the interconnectedness of civil society. This study examines the influence informal social recreation on formal community involvement. To determine this relationship, I test the impact of social activeness on the likelihood joining Japanese neighborhood crime watches, while controlling for other determinants of participation. This test uses a logistic model of 2000 International Crime Victim Survey data. The conclusion verifies that social recreation motivates people to join neighborhood crime watches, suggesting that informal social interaction leads to broader civic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Bridging Social Capital and An Investment Theory of Collective Action: Evidence from The Concord Project Barbara J. Nelson Linda Kaboolian Kathryn A. Carver The question we posed in our research was how do cross-community organizations with their potential to generate bridging social capital form? More specifically, how do concord organizations start against the odds of daily conflict among racial, ethnic, and religious groups defined by too much particularistic history and too little common future? Concord organizations bring together people with fundamentally opposing views or identities for the purpose of promoting civil society while recognizing group differences. After investigating over 100 concord organizations in the US, Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Palestinian and Israeli groups working in the US, our answer is that concord organizations form because potential collective actors see their actions as worthy long-term investments rather than short-term high prices. They are primarily investors rather than consumers. Each person who decides to work to create a concord organization calculates a net pro-social interest rate. This return on investment includes consideration of the danger, the pleasures, the obstacles, the immediate costs, the opportunity costs, and the benefits of action. In particular, investors are attentive to the opportunity costs of the status quo, that is, of not acting, which they considered to have a high and enduring price. Collective action to create concord organizations is an example of thick rationality, the kind of considerations made by people embedded in social systems with multiple personal, organizational, and communal values. Becoming an investor, especially with people who belong to disfavored groups, requires a special micromobilizing frame?a balancing frame. This frame balances an overarching shared value with the enduring opposing values of participants. Because concord organizations never solve the conflicts of values they embody, they are always to some extent in formation mode. Our research determined the ten design principles and necessary practices that allow a balancing frame to endure. Without adherence to principles and practices, antagonistic group values overwhelm shared values, and the organization fails to form or to continue to function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital is expected to help achieve superior outcomes over multiple issue-areas and different levels of societal aggregation, but is it the same social capital that operates in all of these different arenas? To what extent social capital is fungible across different levels and issue areas is explored here through an examination of literatures related to social capital and collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In part of the literature, young people are being accused of being less civic minded than previous generations, and thus as responsible for a process of civic decline. Other authors assume that young people adhere to new and different citizenship concepts, thus bringing about a transition toward more postmodern forms of engagement and citizenship. An investigation of the political views of US 14 year olds, however, does not support either of these claims. The analysis (based on the 1999 IEA-survey among 2,811 9th graders in the US) shows that youngsters adhere to quite traditional and conventional citizenship concepts. A vast majority of them intends to vote or to volunteer. More innovative forms of expected political behavior appeal to a substantial group of pupils as well, but they certainly do not replace conventional and/or electoral participation. Both hypotheses from the civic education as well as social capital schools could be confirmed with regard to factors determining the likelihood of future participation: intensity of civics classes (both with regard to topics as to methods being used) prove to be influential, just as engagement in youth associations, but also informal discussions about politics with friends and media consumption. Non-school related experiences are just as important for political socialization as what is happening in schools and classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since the start of the debate about the importance of social capital and civil society for the quality of democracy, the Scandinavian countries have been causing problems. In particular, observers have been bewildered by an allegedly paradoxical co-existence of a wealth of social capital and pervasive welfare state arrangements. According to the social capital theory, large welfare states should have made engagement in voluntary associations unnecessary thereby making the production of social capital more difficult. However, empirical research shows the Scandinavian countries to have comparatively high levels of social capital. To solve this paradox, we present a theory for how the causal mechanism between variation in the design government institutions and social capital works. The empirical analysis which is based on survey data, show support for the idea that it is the specific design of welfare state policies that matters for the production of social capital. Contacts with universal welfare state institutions tend to increase social trust, while experiences with needs-testing social programs undermines social trust The policy implications are that governments, by designing welfare state institutions, can invest in social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]