Abstract
Our prime interest in this chapter concerns the concepts of social capital and loneliness in older people. The starting point is that both individual-level social capital resources and welfare state contexts are important in understanding loneliness. We study two commonly used aspects of social capital, structural and cognitive, and their association with absence of loneliness by analyzing the European Social Survey data for five different welfare regimes. We focus on two time points, one before and one after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008–2009. Our analyses suggest that there are differences in social capital, in terms of social contacts and trust, and loneliness between the five welfare regimes. A negative trend of social contacts was observed, whereas the results were mixed for social trust and loneliness. Social capital was associated with absence of loneliness; however, this association differed between welfare regimes. The findings are discussed within the framework of welfare state regime contexts.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aidukaite, J. (2009). Old welfare state theories and new welfare regimes in Eastern Europe: Challenges and implications. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 42(1), 23–39.
Arts, W., & Gelissen, J. (2002). Three worlds of welfare capitalism or more? A state-of-the-art report. Journal of European Social Policy, 12(2), 137–158.
Baldwin, P. (1996). Can we define a European welfare state model? In B. Greve (Ed.), Comparative welfare systems (pp. 29–44). Macmillan.
Bambra, C. (2007). Defamilisation and welfare state regimes: A cluster analysis. International Journal of Social Welfare, 16(4), 326–338.
Beck, U., & Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002). Institutionalized individualism and its social and political consequences. University of Michigan Press.
Blyth, M. (2013). Austerity: The history of a dangerous idea. Oxford University Press.
Bryan, M. L., & Jenkins, S. P. (2015). Multilevel modelling of country effects: A cautionary tale. European Sociological Review, 32(1), 3–22.
Clasen, J. (2005). Reforming European welfare states. Oxford University Press.
Dahlberg, L., Andersson, L., & Lennartsson, C. (2018). Long-term predictors of loneliness in old age: Results of a 20-year national study. Aging & Mental Health, 22(2), 190–196.
de Jong Gierveld, J. (1998). A review of loneliness: Concept and definitions, determinants and consequences. Reviews in Clinical Gerontology, 8(1), 73–80.
de Jong Gierveld, J., Dykstra, P. A., & Schenk, N. (2012). Living arrangements, intergenerational support types and older adult loneliness in Eastern and Western Europe. Demographic Research, 27, 167–200.
de Jong Gierveld, J., & Tesch-Römer, C. (2012). Loneliness in old age in Eastern and Western European societies: Theoretical perspectives. European Journal of Ageing, 9(4), 285–295.
Dykstra, P. A. (2009). Older adult loneliness: Myths and realities. European Journal of Ageing, 6(2), 91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-009-0110-3
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Polity Press.
Esping-Andersen, G. (1999). Social foundations of postindustrial economies. Oxford University Press.
Farnsworth, K., & Irving, Z. (2015). Austerity: More than the sum of its parts. In K. Farnsworth & Z. Irving (Eds.), Social policy in times of austerity (pp. 9–21). Policy Press.
Ferrera, M. (1996). The ‘Southern model’ of welfare in social Europe. Journal of European Social Policy, 6(1), 17–37.
Fokkema, T., De Jong Gierveld, J., & Dykstra, P. A. (2012). Cross-national differences in older adult loneliness. The Journal of Psychology, 146(1–2), 201–228.
Fritzell, J., Bäckman, O., & Ritakallio, V.-M. (2012). Income inequality and poverty: Do the Nordic countries still constitute a family of their own? In J. Kvist, J. Fritzell, B. Hvinden, & O. Kangas (Eds.), Changing social equality (pp. 165–185). Policy Press.
Green, A., Janmaat, G., & Cheng, H. (2011). Social cohesion: Converging and diverging trends. National Institute Economic Review, 215(1), R6–R22.
Guillén, A., & Pavolini, E. (2017). Spain and Italy. In P. Taylor-Gooby, B. Leruth, & L. Chung, (Eds.), After Austerity. Welfare state transformation in Europe after the Great Recession (pp. 136–154). Oxford University Press.
Hansen, T., & Slagsvold, B. (2015). Late-life loneliness in 11 European countries: Results from the generations and gender survey. Social Indicators Research, 124(1), 1–20.
Helliwell, J. F., Huang, H., & Wang, S. (2014). Social capital and well-being in times of crisis. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15(1), 145–162.
Hemerijck, A. (2013). Changing Welfare States. Oxford University Press.
Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., Baker, M., Harris, T., & Stephenson, D. (2015). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: A meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 227–237.
Honigh-de Vlaming, R., Haveman-Nies, A., Bos-Oude Groeniger, I., de Groot, L., & van’t Veer, P. (2014). Determinants of trends in loneliness among Dutch older people over the period 2005–2010. J Aging Health, 26(3), 422–440
Hooghe, M., & Stolle, D. (Eds.). (2003). Generating social capital: Civil society and institutions in comparative perspective. Palgrave Macmillan.
Hunsaker, A., & Hargittai, E. (2018). A review of Internet use among older adults. New Media & Society, 20(10), 3937–3954.
Islam, M. K., Merlo, J., Kawachi, I., Lindström, M., & Gerdtham, U. G. (2006). Social capital and health: Does egalitarianism matter? A literature review. International Journal for Equity in Health, 5(1), 3.
Kääriäinen, J., & Lehtonen, H. (2006). The variety of social capital in welfare state regimes–a comparative study of 21 countries. European Societies, 8(1), 27–57.
Kawachi, I., Subramanian, S. V., & Kim, D. (Eds.). (2008). Social capital and health. Springer.
Knack, S., & Keefer, P. (1997). Does social capital have an economic payoff? A cross-country investigation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112(4), 1251–1288.
Kuisma, M., & Nygård, M. (2015). The European Union and the Nordic models of welfares—path dependency or policy harmonisation? In Grøn, C. H., Nedergaard, P., & Wivel, A. (Eds.), The Nordic countries and the European Union. Still the other European community? (pp. 158–172). Routledge.
Kuitto, K. (2016). From social security to social investment? Compensating and social investment welfare policies in a life-course perspective. Journal of European Social Policy, 26(5), 442–459.
Kumlin, S., & Rothstein, B. (2005). Making and breaking social capital: The impact of welfare-state institutions. Comparative Political Studies, 38(4), 339–365.
Kumlin, S., Stadelmann-Steffen, I., & Haugsgjerd, A. (2018). Trust and the Welfare State. In E. M. Uslaner (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of social and political trust (pp. 385–408). Oxford University Press.
Litwin, H., & Shiovitz-Ezra, S. (2011). Social network type and subjective well-being in a national sample of older Americans. The Gerontologist, 51(3), 379–388.
Lykes, V. A., & Kemmelmeier, M. (2014). What predicts loneliness? Cultural difference between individualistic and collectivistic societies in Europe. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45(3), 468–490.
Morel, N., Palier, B., & Palme, J. (2012). Beyond the welfare state as we knew it? In N. Morel, B. Palier, & J. Palme (Eds.), Towards a social investment welfare state? (pp. 1–32). Policy Press.
Muckenhuber, J., Stronegger, W. J., & Freidl, W. (2013). Social capital affects the health of older people more strongly than that of younger people. Ageing & Society, 33(5), 853–870.
Neira, I., Vázquez, E., & Portela, M. (2009). An empirical analysis of social capital and economic growth in Europe (1980–2000). Social Indicators Research, 92(1), 111–129.
Nygård, M., Kuisma, M., Krüger, N., & Campbell-Barr, V. (2015). Investing in our future? The influence of social investment ideas on family policy discourses in Finland, Germany and the UK. In U. Korkut, K. Mahendran, & G. Bucken-Knapp (Eds.), Discursive governance in politics, policy, and the public sphere (pp. 31–46). Palgrave Macmillan.
Nyqvist, F., Cattan, M., Conradsson, M., Näsman, M., & Gustafsson, Y. (2017). Prevalence of loneliness over ten years among the oldest old. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 45(4), 411–418.
Nyqvist, F., Victor, C. R., Forsman, A. K., & Cattan, M. (2016). The association between social capital and loneliness in different age groups: A population-based study in Western Finland. BMC Public Health, 16(1), 542.
Ólafsson, S., Daly, M., Kangas, O., & Palme, J. (Eds.). (2019). Welfare and the great recession: A comparative study. Oxford University Press.
Paxton, P. (1999). Is social capital declining in the United States? A multiple indicator assessment. American Journal of Sociology, 105(1), 88–127.
Pinquart, M., & Sorensen, S. (2001). Influences on loneliness in older adults: A meta-analysis. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 23(4), 245–266.
Putnam, R. D. (1993). Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton University Press.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone. Free Press.
Reeskens, T., & van Oorschot, W. (2014). European feelings of deprivation amidst the financial crisis: Effects of welfare state effort and informal social relations. Acta Sociologica, 57(3), 191–206.
Rothstein, B., & Stolle, D. (2008). The state and social capital: An institutional theory of generalized trust. Comparative Politics, 40(4), 441–459.
Sarracino, F., & Mikucka, M. (2017). Social capital in Europe from 1990 to 2012: Trends and convergence. Social Indicators Research, 131(1), 407–432.
Saxonberg, S., & Szelewa, D. (2007). The continuing legacy of the communist legacy? The development of family policies in Poland and the Czech Republic. Social Politics, 14(3), 351–379.
Scheepers, P., Grotenhuis, M. T., & Gelissen, J. (2002). Welfare states and dimensions of social capital: Cross-national comparisons of social contacts in European countries. European Societies, 4(2), 185–207.
Schuldi, M. (2005). The reform of Bismarckian Pension Systems: A comparison of pension politics in Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden. Amsterdam University Press.
Siegert, D. (2009). Why no ‘Dilemma of Simultaneousness’? The ‘Great Transformation’ in Eastern Central Europe considered from the point of view of post-socialist research. In R. Frank & S. Burghart (Eds.), Driving forces of socialist transformation (pp. 89–112). Praesens.
Sundström, G., Fransson, E., Malmberg, B., & Davey, A. (2009). Loneliness among older Europeans. European Journal of Ageing, 6(4), 267.
Taylor-Gooby, P., Leruth, B., & Chung, H. (2017). Where next for the UK welfare state? In Taylor-Gooby, P., Leruth, B., & Chung, L. (Eds.), After Austerity. Welfare State transformation in Europe after the great recession (pp. 48–66). Oxford University Press.
Vanderleyden, L., & Heylen, L. (2007). Ouderen, hun sociale contacten en de beleving ervan: continuïteit of verandering? [Elderly people, their social contacts and experiences: Stable or changing?] Tijdschrift voor Sociologie, 28(1), 52–78.
Victor, C. R., Scambler, S. J., Shah, S., Cook, D. G., Harris, T., Rink, E., & De Wilde, S. (2002). Has loneliness amongst older people increased? An investigation into variations between cohorts. Ageing & Society, 22(5), 585–597.
Yang, K., & Victor, C. (2011). Age and loneliness in 25 European nations. Ageing & Society, 31(8), 1368–1388.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nyqvist, F., Nygård, M., Scharf, T. (2021). Social Capital and Loneliness in Welfare State Regimes Before and After the Global Financial Crisis: Results Based on the European Social Survey. In: Almakaeva, A., Moreno, A., Wilkes, R. (eds) Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being. Societies and Political Orders in Transition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75813-4_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75813-4_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-75812-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-75813-4
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)