Das soziale Kapital der SchweizFreitag, Markus (Ed.) Zürich, NZZ Libro (2014), 352 p., ISBN 978 3 03823 882 9

Abstract

When Max Weber invented sociology at the first German Congress of Sociology in 1910, he sketched two projects eminently necessary for him which were not realized then, but later proved to be disciplines on their own: the methodical study of the press became Journalism and (Mass) Communication, and "the sociology of voluntary associations in the widest acceptance of the word" emancipated in the 1990s as the theory of social capital. Today, their founders Pierre Bourdieu, James Coleman and, above all, Robert Putnam are among the most cited social scientists.What Putman is worldwide, Markus Freitag is perhaps on a European, but surely on a Swiss level. Teaching political sociology at the University of Bern, he has an impressive record of publications on social capital in various continental and Swiss journals. His most recent book, published in cooperation with some of his associates, gives a synthesis of more than ten years of research on social capital in Switzerland.The first chapter, written exclusively by Freitag himself, reminds us of the various definitions of social capital and sketches his conceptual framework (p. 18f.): social capital has first a structural dimension or component, mainly constituted by social networks: associations, unpayed activities, and more informal forms of social life such as work and neighbourhood contacts, family and friends. The second, cultural dimension splits into the big issue of trust, as well as in proximity with strangers, and the communal values and norms such as reciprocity and tolerance. Furthermore, Freitag addresses the question of the character of social capital as an economic goodneither a strictly private nor only a public goodas well as the conditions required for its appearance and its effects on nearly all aspects of human life. In a balanced view, Freitag also discusses various reservations against the concept of social capital: is it really innovative? What are the causalities? Is there a clear way to operationalise the concept?Associations are the topic of the second part. After recalling the crucial importance of membership and activity in associations for social capital, especially in Robert Putnam's theory, and in this largely tributary to Alexis de Tocqueville's path-breaking observations in La D emocratie en Am erique, the authors clearly expose the various forms of associationsoutside-or inside-oriented, homogeneous or heterogeneous, connected etc.and discuss their empirical findings for Switzerland. The Swiss are easily associating: three out of four are engaged in at least one association, but the figures differ significantly from canton to canton (p. 49 for the activities, p. 50 for membership numbers). Considered diachronically, there is however a clear sign that there is a significant decline of engagement in associationsespecially political and professional ones as well as boy scoutsin the last 20 to 30 years in the age-segment of the 20 to 39 years old. Direct political participation is an essential condition for social capital building. However, ...