Freiwilligentätigkeit als Sozialkapital : Eine empirische Analyse zu den Rahmenbedingungen bürgerschaftlichen Vereinsengagements

Abstract

In this paper we ask for conditions influencing volunteering in social organizations as strongholds of social capital. Beside individual characteristics, contextual factors such as political, social, or economic settings are also taken into consideration to explain individual decisions to participate in voluntary organizations. The influences of individual and contextual level factors are tested simultaneously in several multi-level analyses. The results show that volunteering in social associations on the one hand is affected by individual characteristics and on the other hand by contextual factors such as a rural environment and institutional settings. In particular, both direct democracy and decentralization offering larger possibilities of participation facilitates volunteering in social organizations. The data for our analysis is taken from the Swiss Labor Force Survey (SLFS) and comprises over 54.000 respondents.