ABSTRACT
In both academic and policy-making communities, social capital is increasingly regarded as having great potential for tackling many of the socio-economic problems facing our society. Yet how to define and measure social capital remains hotly debated. This chapter seeks to contribute to the debate by using a theoretically informed and methodologically rigorous approach to measuring formal and informal social capital. Drawing on the Home Office Citizenship Survey of 2003, we show that in addition to informal volunteers, formal participants can be further differentiated into civic and political activists. All three groups have different socio-demographic bases and different socio-political orientations. While civic activists have confidence in the institutions, trust their neighbours and believe in their ability to influence decision making at the local and national levels, political activists are critical of political institutions and are keen to make a change. Informal volunteers provide crucial help to people in need but tend to keep a low profile in the political sphere. On the other hand, it is also the case that all three groups are situated in more advantaged socio-economic positions, suggesting that reducing socio-economic inequality is the key to building an inclusive, dynamic and prosperous society.
