Social capital: Components and determinants

The study examines the social capital from the community approach in three dimensions: trust and solidarity, collective action and cooperation, and participation in groups and networks. It was conducted in Colombia in 2007, covered 41,543 households with 164,474 people.

Indices were constructed for each dimension. Was performed a multinomial logistic regression model to identify factors that determine higher or lower levels in the three dimensions studied. The determining factors were: sociodemographic characteristics of individuals, (age, marital status, occupation and education), characteristics and relationship in the household (household size, poverty, conflict boarding practices and violence) and territorial context (geographic region, urban / rural, ethnic group membership). The findings of this study allow us to confirm that the different dimensions of social capital behave differently in the same population, are affected distinctively by the individual, family or context determinants.

The predisposing factors for building trust are strongly associated with the duration and stability of relational links that people create in their place of settlement, expressed by the time they have lived in the area, belonging to an ethnic group, have close family ties and not be immersed in experiences of family fragmentation (divorce or domestic violence). The collective action and cooperation, unlike the trust, is strongly conditioned by occupation. They are more likely those who engage in activities that by their nature would demand cooperative attitudes and practices (unpaid family worker or self-employed) and that in turn would require high skills of relationship. On the other hand, is also associated with stable jobs that provide certainty of income, opportunities for interaction and average living standard. Finally, about participation in groups and networks, the determinants are related to the possession of other forms of capital: human (education), economic and cultural (belongs to ethnic group).