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What's Up
- PRODUCTIVE NETWORKS. Our approach defines social capital as a
resource to produce benefits through the social networks
in which individuals are embedded. It can affect individual health,
participation in civil society or trust
in democratic institutions. The research is carried on by analyzing
survey data covering more than two dozen
countries of Europe East and West plus post-Soviet states.
- RELIGION AS COMPENSATION FOR DEPRIVATION? Religious
involvement is a form of social capital with the potential to
offset negative effects of socio-economic deprivation on health.
A joint University College London Medical School and CSPP team is
launching an ESRC-funded pilot study to test to what extent this
happens through the secondary analysis of European surveys covering
health, religion, socio-economic status and social capital.
- TRUST. Although trust is deemed significant for social capital,
studies often confound trust in other people and trust in political
institutions. It is also debatable whether trust is a cause or consequence.
William Mishler has taken the lead in a series of analyses of the
importance of trust in post-Communist societies.
- CIVIC PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNANCE IN EUROPE. The Cinefogo Network
of Excellence promotes studies of civic participation, identities,
and multi-level governance in relation to organised civil society.
Supported by a European Commission VIth Framework grant, it consists
of more than 175 researchers in 41 institutions in 15 European countries.
Professor Claire
Wallace leads Aberdeen's contribution. See SPP
431 and SPP
433.
- LIVING CONDITIONS IN EIGHT POST-SOVIET SOCIETIES. Dr. Christian
Haerpfer has conducted a major survey-based study in Russia, Armenia,
Belarus, Georgia, Kazahkstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Ukraine examining
the lifestyles, social networks and health of adults. The results
are available in a lengthy Report
to the European Commission.
- VIRTUAL NETWORKING ACROSS EUROPE. The Internet makes trans-national
networking easy--provided that participants share a common language.
But with more than two dozen languages in use in Europe, this cannot
be taken for granted. However, the diffusion
of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) is a major advance in
creating a European public space.
- INFORMAL AND FORMAL NETWORKS IN TURKEY. The economic development
of Turkey has made it a large urban society but not a full fledged
European welfare state. A major study of the quality
of life in Turkey by Richard Rose and Yusuf Ziya Ozcan shows
how its social conditions compare with neighbours in the Balkans
and with old EU member states.
- DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL CAPITAL. CSPP research in post-Communist
countries has found that, contrary to Robert Putnam's claims about
social capital encouraging democracy, networks can be used in anti-modern
as well as modern ways. With the aid of an ESRC grant, Christian
Haerpfer is now exploring how it links with autocracy as well as
democracy in Moldova.
- BARRIERS TO HEALTH CARE. Laws give an entitlement to health care
to virtually every European. CSPP research has identified problems
in access
to health care facing individuals lacking resources and networks
to claim their entitlements. In post-Communist countries, an additional
barrier can arise, corruption.
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