Civil society and social capital : The case of Setlementti Louhela Ry in Järvenpää, Finland

Abstract

Social capital as a concept continues demanding recognition in social science studies and its presentation of the relationship with civil society and civic activities has been positive. Arising from that, this study explored people’s perspectives of civic activities supporting their social capital. Drawing on theories of conceptualization and categorization of social capital into cognitive and structural, where cognitive social capital measures were generalised trust, reciprocity and sense of belonging while, social contact and social participation were structural social capital measures, the concept was explored. Using Setlementti Louhela’s 2018 survey data on their civic activities, a case study was conducted. Overall, the results show that civic activities have a positive impact on social capital as perceived by all group service users. Frequency distribution of both cognitive and structural social capital show that over half of respondents in all the groups gave a positive indication towards the measures except for the Volunteer’s group. The sample size comprised of more females (70.9%) than male (29.1%) participants in all groups and the age group above 63 accounted for the majority (60.6%) while those below 18 years were the lowest (1.8%). The implications of the finding on social capital and civic activities reinforce the relationship although it is still subject to theoretical approach. However, further research is needed that covers all age groups and genders equally.