<p>The purpose of this essay is to study causes for the lack of political trust in Europe and especially in Sweden. The essay starts with a presentation of two theories about the reasons for low political trust. Robert D. Putnam among others presents a theory that gives social capital an important role when viewing the low political trust. As Putnam sees it a person that participates in any kind of organization, political or not, develop trust for other human beings that in the long run affects political trust. Pippa Norris on the other hand is convinced that political trust is connected to the performance of political institutions. She claims that for example corruption is strongly relates to political trust. The citizens of a country in which corruption is common will not trust politicians as much as the citizens in a nation where corruption is lower. In this essay, I present the current levels of trust in politicians and parliament in the countries that participate in the cross-national public opinion survey European social Survey (ESS). The investigation shows that Denmark, Finland and Switzerland have got the highest levels of political trust and that Poland, Czech Republic and Portugal have got the lowest. My analysis shows that neither gender nor age makes any difference in political trust. The comparison between political trust and participation leads to the conclusion that citizens that participate in politics have more political trust irrespective of which kind of organization they participate in. I also compare political trust and a corruption index. That comparison shows that a high level of corruption is related to a lowlevel of political trust.</p>

<p>This study aims to investigate associations in two areas in Stockholm County with diverse socio-economic conditions. The study intends to examine the impact these differences have on what role the bureaucrats and politicians in the two areas think that the associations should have. Bureaucrats are those who design guidelines for associations and that is why they have an important role in the conditions of the associations. A comparison between the two areas has been made to see if the requirement in the guidelines for the areas are different according to where the members live. The two areas that have been used to compare the guidelines of associations are Danderyd municipal and the district Spånga-Tensta. These two areas have economic and social resource differences. The study is based on qualitative approach in which interviews with bureaucrats and local politicians from each area were used to obtain a deeper understanding of what impact socio-economic conditions have on the associations. There are major differences in the range of associations between these two areas, this may be because of the different demands that the bureaucrats and politicians have on the associations. Guidelines for associations show clear differences in the role that the bureaucrats and politicians believe that the associations will play in the area.</p> / <p>Denna studie syftar till att undersöka förutsättningarna för föreningslivet i två områden i Stockholms län med skilda socioekonomiska förhållanden. Studien ämnar till att undersöka vilken inverkan dessa skillnader har på hur byråkraterna och politikerna i de båda områdena ställer sig till föreningslivets roll i respektive område. Byråkraterna är de som utformar riktlinjerna för föreningsbidrag, därför har de en viktig roll i föreningslivets förutsättningar. För att se om det ställs olika krav på föreningsmedlemmar beroende på vilket område de bor i har en jämförelse gjorts mellan riktlinjerna för respektive område. De två områden som har använts för att jämföra riktlinjerna för föreningsbidrag är Danderyds kommun och stadsdelen Spånga-Tensta. Dessa två områden skiljer sig gällande ekonomiska och sociala resurser. Studien är baserad på kvalitativ metod där intervjuer med byråkrater och lokalpolitiker från respektive område har använts för att få en djupare förståelse för vilken inverkan de socioekonomiska förhållandena har på föreningslivet. Det råder stora skillnader i utbudet av föreningar mellan dessa två områden, detta kan bero på att de krav som ställs på föreningarna skiljer sig åt. Riktlinjerna för föreningsbidrag visar tydliga skillnader i den roll som byråkraterna och politikerna anser att föreningarna ska fylla för området.</p>

<p>In the past decades technology has changed the way people interact. With the introduction of theInternet, new forms of communication have been developing and changing the ways peoplerelate and create relationships. These new forms of communication provide the users thepossibility to elude time and geographical constraints, therefore allowing them to always beconnected. In recent years new Internet applications known as Social Networking Sites havegained popularity and gained users from all around the globe. They have become an importantplatform to maintain existing relationships, but also to create new ones.This growing interest of people in social networking sites has developed a need, from differenttypes of companies, to create strategies to be noticed in these networks. However, most of, thefew, literature that can be found, is related to how globally known companies’ use these tools,and which benefits and constraints they have found on using them for the organization (van Zyl,2009); and little or no literature can be found on how an entrepreneur uses SNSs for companydevelopment and resource acquisition. In other words, there is a research gap in the literature forunderstanding how entrepreneurs shape their networks in order to gather important resources thatcan help them create, improve and develop their venture. The purpose of this study is to analyzehow entrepreneurs use electronic social networks, as a tool to find acquaintances, create businessrelationships and manage these relationships over time to gain social capital and shape aneffective business-network that can complement or expand their ‘real world’ networks. Based onprevious research and literature three main areas of study, that could be related to traditionalnetworks, were determined: network structure, strength of ties, and development of rapport. Fromthese elements a conceptual framework was developed, on which a comparison of the conceptsfrom traditional networks to electronic was made.Through the use of a qualitative research design and a processual analysis approach, ten semistructuredinterviews were conducted with entrepreneurs who use social networking sites fortheir business, and who could present and identify advantages and disadvantages of using thesesites as a business tool. The data was analyzed through a grounded theory method, where axialcodes were further collapsed or expanded to generate sub- categories and categories that wouldhelp explain the processes being studied. These data, as a result of the analysis, rendered twomodels of understanding; the first one presenting how both networking processes (Face to Faceand Electronic) interrelate with one another to enhance the overall network management, and thesecond suggesting an on-line networking process which can help enable rapport and enhanceinformation flows within an on-line network.</p>

<p>Entrepreneurship is an important part of every country‟s economy. With the recent flow of migration to many countries, immigrant entrepreneurs have received interest from both societal and economical scholars to measure the effect they create on the home country economically or demographically. In Sweden as well as in other European countries, the rate of migration increases significantly. Upon migrating to Sweden, immigrants enters the labor market but difficulties in integrating into the labor market drive immigrants toward self-employment and thus becoming immigrant entrepreneurs.A nationality which has a long history of migration to Sweden and account for a considerable proportion of immigrants coming to Sweden every year are the Thai, but there is little research on this group of immigrants. The purpose of the study is to find out how Thai entrepreneurs use social capital in starting their business venture in Sweden. In the theoretical chapter, entrepreneurship and immigrant entrepreneurs are first defined, then the relationship between networking and entrepreneurship is discussed, followed by a section on social capital and its relationship with immigrant entrepreneurs. The literature suggests that entrepreneurs usually go through 3 stages of venture creation: idea generation, resource acquisition and market organization. With the help of social capital through their social network, entrepreneurs retrieve benefit from their network members in several aspects throughout these stages.We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with seven Thai entrepreneurs in Sweden who work in food, health-care, retail and lodging businesses. Both the business network and the ethnic network, in this case Thai network, have important roles when Thai entrepreneurs develop new business ventures. Social capital assists the entrepreneurs in solving the difficulties faced during establishment process, such as labor, taxation and legitimacy. In addition, social capital enables the entrepreneurs in information and resource acquisition, word of mouth advertisement and business registration. Further, family members and spouses are found to be significantly important for Thai entrepreneurs in Sweden as a source of labor, capital and business partners.</p> / Master thesis 15p spring term 2010

<p>One of the most vulnerable groups in Swedish society today is single parent families, a group that has increased over the last thirty years in proportion to married and cohabiting parents. The aims of this thesis are to study inequality and inequity in health and health care utilization with regard to whether parents are single or couple (married/cohabiting), to investigate whether the concept of social capital may provide us with further understanding when analyzing inequality and inequity in health and to investigate how the mental health of single parent children may differ from couple parent children and to what extent this difference may be due to parental socio-economic and socio-demographic characteristics, including social capital. The results from the papers on which this thesis is based indicate that both single mothers and single fathers have poorer health than couple mothers and fathers. Single mothers also refrain from seeking medical care to a greater extent. The financial advantage of single fathers, in comparison with single mothers, might have an impact on their medical care utilization, since they seemingly seek and consume health care to an extent that matches their poorer health. Social capital has as robust an association with self-rated health as any traditional social determinant of health. Four parental characteristics were found to be independently associated with children’s mental health; being a single parent, ‘poor parental health’, limited social support and low levels of social capital. The uneven distribution of all investigated determinants of health, including social capital, gives us reason to conclude that our findings indeed raise concerns about equity. Action taken by society to enable single parents to increase their social capital might improve their and their children’s health. It may also be clearly stated that financial status has a major impact on both health and health care utilization. This particular characteristic is also rather accessible to alteration, for example through financial transfers between groups in society. </p>

A theoretical argument is presented to suggest that engineering curriculum be designed to develop social capital. Additionally, the value of social capital in the retention of students in the College of Engineering, and the development, role, and value of social capital in an electrical engineering laboratory is evaluated. Data collected includes participant observations, informal and formal student interviews, and a researcher-designed survey. Social capital consists of interaction among individuals (networks), social rules that encourage interactions such as trust and reciprocity (norms), and the value of these networks and norms to the individual and the group. A large body of evidence suggests that social capital is valuable in terms of retention and multiple measures of academic achievement. The importance of social capital in retention was verified by students that have left engineering and those that remain, in terms of interactions with peers, teaching assistants, and engineering faculty; and a lack of sense of community in freshman engineering courses. Students that have left engineering differed in their perceptions of social capital from those that remain in their frustrations with teaching methods that encourage little discussion or opportunities to ask questions about assumptions or approaches. The open-ended nature of laboratory assignments, extensive required troubleshooting, and lack of specific directions from the teaching assistants were found to encourage the development of social capital in the laboratory setting. Degree centrality, a network measure of social capital as the number of ties an individual has within a social network, was found to be positively correlated with laboratory grade. Student perceptions of the importance of interactions with other students on success in the laboratory setting has a negative model effect on academic achievement in the laboratory. In contrast, student perceptions of the quality of interactions with teaching assistants has a positive effect on measures of academic achievement. The results suggest that social capital is more important to some students than others in terms of retention and academic achievement. Recommendations are made to identify students requiring social capital to be successful, and to provide opportunities for these students to develop social capital. / Graduation date: 2005

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Eichstätt. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-233).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: David Kaplan, School of Education. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Social capital resources for the firm can be conceptualized as those executive-to-executive connections held by a firm’s top management team, as well as firm-to-firm relationships that exist fairly independently of particular individuals. This type of resource can compose an important portion of any firm’s overall resource portfolio. The potential benefits associated with social capital include enhanced economic exchange opportunities, improved innovation capabilities and increased firm survival rates, among others. This study adds to the literature stream focusing on the positive consequences of social capital by demonstrating the cross-level influence of social capital on the development of reciprocity within a joint venture network. It also highlights the link between social capital resources and the quality of knowledge available to a firm via its joint venture partnerships. More importantly, though, we specifically investigate the conditions under which a firm’s social capital (firm-to-firm relationships or the social capital held by key executives) can contribute to undesirable firm-level behaviors. One often mentioned, yet rarely explored dimension of social capital is the phenomenon frequently called the ‘dark side’ of social capital. This dark side of social capital is argued to exist whenever the behavioral expectations accompanying social capital limit contribute to undesirable outcomes for the firm. Several hypotheses are tested in the context of joint ventures among S&P 500 firms. The likelihood of a firm having legal action taken against it by federal regulatory agencies or other firms is demonstrated herein to be related to the number and strength of social capital relationships. In general this research supports the view that having a large number of weak ties is beneficial for firms. More specifically, we found that in the wake of the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, an inverse relationship exists between the likelihood of firms engaging in the undesirable behaviors investigated and the number of Boards of Directors on which the firms’ respective executives held seats. Conversely, firms were more likely to engage in these undesirable behaviors whenever the firm-to-firm ties within their network of joint ventures were strongest. Furthermore, executive discretion was highly related to the likelihood of firms engaging in undesirable behaviors.