Conference Agenda

International comparison of social capital has long been a central focus in this field, yet systematic theoretical mechanisms remain underexplored. This article, from the theoretical perspective of integration and differentiation, investigates how institutional forces in the economic, cultural, and social dimensions shape the construction of individual social capital. Using data from the 2017 International Social Survey Programme, this study measures individual social capital with the position generator and conducts a comparative analysis across 31 countries. The results reveal significant differences in individual social capital across countries, with notably higher levels in Nordic countries and relatively lower levels in East Asian countries. Similar findings emerge in social networks' upper reachability, extensity, and heterogeneity. Importantly, the dynamics of integration and differentiation at the economic, social, and cultural dimensions within each country emerge as institutional forces shaping the construction of individual social capital.

Existing studies have explored the impact of economic, political and social objective factors on social trust, but the effect of country-level cultural differences is under-explored. This paper attempts to explain international differences in social trust from a cultural perspective. Based on Hofstede's cultural dimension theory, we use the 2017 International Social survey data to explore the social trust in 29 countries around the world, and use multi-level analysis and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to deeply analyze the mechanism of culture's influence on social trust. The main findings are threefold. First, there are significant differences in social trust among different countries. Second, culture is an important reason for the differentiation of social trust. Specifically, individualism and long-term orientation have significant positive impacts on social trust within a country, while uncertainty avoidance has a significant negative impact on the trust level. Third, the effects of culture on social trust are characterized by asymmetry and configuration. Asymmetry addresses that among these cultural dimensions, high power distance and low long-term orientation are key factors leading to low social trust, while high individualism is an important basis for high social trust. Configuration addresses that the influence of the six cultural dimensions on social trust presents a combination of interrelated characteristics, with no single dimension having a singular effect. The findings broaden the cultural explanation of international differences in social trust and social interaction patterns from a global perspective, and provide a new approach to study the influence of culture on social trust.

Network analysts have long been concerned with the accuracy of and potential sources of bias in ego reports of their alters’ characteristics, a concern that has gained new relevance with work promoting the use of such reports in dynamic modelling of social phenomena as ‘remote social sensing’. This research, using data collected as part of a network panel survey of a population in rural Senegal (the Niakhar Social Networks and Health Project), addresses the accuracy of respondents’ reports of alters’ characteristics across a number of observable demographic and household characteristics (number of children, age of youngest, household possessions), as well as health beliefs (acceptability of family planning and violence against women). We estimate the association between report accuracy and characteristics of ties between respondents (egos) and their alters including relationship type, subjective value assigned to alters by ego, and time spent in interaction with them. We then estimate the accuracy of aggregate estimates of alter characteristics relative to parameters for these in the local populations in which respondents live. Finally, using data from a unique survey experiment in which the order of questions concerning respondents’ own and their alters’ health beliefs was randomized, we attempt to assess the degree to which reports of alters’ health beliefs exhibit priming biases associated with projection (alters’ beliefs closer to those of the respondent), and conformity (respondents’ beliefs closer to those of their alters) effects, and the degree to which respondents’ reports are associated with local majority beliefs and variance in these.