Social capital in the context of cultural differences

Abstract

The article discussed the notion of social capital and its relation with the culture of specific country. In the first part of it, the concept of social capital was presented and cultural differences like power distance, individualism, masculinity or femininity, tolerance to ambiguity, deciding about the level of social capital were presented. It includes different approaches to social capital and ways of understanding it, as the network of contacts of separate entities enabling them using different resources or as feature of a given community, fostering taking social and individual initiatives. The next part of elaboration covers short description of cultural differences with an indication of these elements, which can differentiate separate countries in terms of the level of social capital. Then research results on the effect of individualism in the culture of separate states of the USA on social capital were presented and research results on the relationship between the level of individualism in each country and the level of trust were discussed. Then the research results on the effect of culture in twenty six regions of European countries were presented. The relationship between power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism and the level of social capital was proven in mentioned research. Article was prepared on the basis of Polish and English-speaking literature. The aim was the presentation of current research on differentiation of social capital and its elements such as general trust, institutional trust, informal networks, formal networks, civic participation. Also conclusions concerning possibilities of conducting further research in this area were presented.