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The sociological concept of social capital has grown in popularity in recent years and research programs in North America, Europe, and East Asia have demonstrated how social capital has a significant impact on occupational mobility, community building, social movement, and economic development. This book uses new empirical data to test how social capital works in different societies with diverse political-economic and cultural institutions. Taking a comparative approach, this study focuses on data from three different societies, China, Taiwan, and the United States, in order to revea.

Engagement in voluntary associations and the organizational social capital their members accumulate in the public arena may grow generalized trust by exposing members to diverse social ties outside the individual social network. Taking Korea as a case and using a nationally representative data set, I test a set of hypotheses to identify the relationship between organizational social capital and generalized trust. Specifically, empirical tests verify that (a) organizational social capital comprises organizational diversity and resources and (b) it has a positive relationship with generalized trust. Apart from the relationship between organizational social capital and generalized trust, the results indicate that political dissatisfaction and corruption in the public service constitutes a political institutional contingency that decreases generalized trust in Korea.

The study proposes an integrative model of individual social capital and examines if trust, social networks, and social resources are related across countries. Although trust and social resources were often referred to as social capital or its essential components, the literature lacks empirical verification of whether and how they are associated. Particularly, examining the relationship by a specific measurement of social networks is imperative. The relationship should be identified considering the influences of country-level contingencies. The study applied a multilevel within-between mixed regression method to the International Social Survey Program 2017 data from 30 countries. Using a position generator of social networks, the study found that generalized trust was associated with interpersonal networks primarily through weak ties across countries, accounting for country-level contingencies. Both strong and weak ties were instrumental in embedding social resources. The results supported the integrative model of social capital that connects generalized trust to social resources.

Sociological theory predicts that volunteers are likely to be more socially integrated into their communities than nonvolunteers. In this study, we test this theory by examining three dimensions of relations to neighbors—contact, social engagement, and the perception that neighbors trust each other. We hypothesize reciprocal relations between volunteering and these three measures. Using cross–lagged structural equation models applied to two waves of data from the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), we find that frequency of contact with neighbors is positively related to volunteering, but there is no reciprocal effect. Frequency of social engagement does not predict future volunteering but volunteers tend to become more socially engaged with their neighbors. Perceptions of neighbors as trusting are unrelated to volunteering.

Many studies have found that volunteers tend to be more religious and better educated, but it is not clear why. One explanation is that churches and schools instill a sense of obligation in people to help others and this obligation is fulfilled by doing volunteer work. In this study data from National Survey of Midlife in the United States are used to examine the influence of education and having been raised in a religious home on adults' sense of obligation and subsequent volunteering. Religious background has no direct effect on sense of obligation. However, it exerts an influence on obligation through private (but not public) adult religiosity. Education has both direct and indirect effects (through obligations) on adult volunteering. The results underline the fact that social norms should not be ignored in explanations of volunteerism.