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European Sociological Review Advance Access published online on March 12, 2008
European Sociological Review, doi:10.1093/esr/jcn021
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Education and Dimensions of Social Capital: Do Educational Effects Differ due to Educational Expansion and Social Security Expenditure?

Maurice Gesthuizen

Maurice Gesthuizen (to whom correspondence should be addressed), Department of Social Science Research Methodology, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Email: M.Gesthuizen{at}maw.ru.nl

Tom van der Meer

Tom van der Meer, Department of Social Science Research Methodology, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Email: T.Vandermeer{at}maw.ru.nl

Peer Scheepers

Peer Scheepers, Department of Social Science Research Methodology, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Email: P.Scheepers{at}maw.ru.nl

To what extent does education affect formal and informal social capital, what is the influence of educational expansion, and welfare state contexts, and to what extent do educational effects on social capital differ under varying educational expansion and welfare state contexts? Multilevel estimates on 28 nations from the Eurobarometer (62.2; 2004) reveal that educational attainment increases all indicators of both formal and informal social capital except one: contact frequency with one's neighbours. We attributed this latter finding to the existence of a localist orientation among lower educated individuals. The higher educated profit from socialization at home, at school, and through their social networks in terms of social capital. There are no consistent patterns that show that in countries with a high level of educational expansion and social security expenditure, levels of formal or informal social capital are on average lower or higher. Cross-level interaction estimates, however, strongly suggest that educational expansion decreases educational differences in both formal and informal social capital. These findings suggest that individuals are motivated and recruited through networks to become socially active.

Manuscript received: July 1, 2007.


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