Social Participation and Hours Worked

We investigate the relationship between social participation and the hours worked in the market. Social participation is the component of social capital that measures individuals? engagement in groups, associations and non-governmental organizations. We provide a model of consumer choice where social participation may be either a substitute or a complement to material consumption ? depending on whether participation is instrumentally or non-instrumentally motivated ? and where a local environment with greater social participation increases the return to individual participation. We carry out an empirical investigation of this framework using survey data on United States for the period 1972-2004. We find that non-instrumental social participation substantially decreases the hours worked, while instrumental social participation substantially increases them. Moreover, evidence is consistent with the idea that a local environment with greater social participation fosters individual social participation.social participation; relational goods; social capital; work hours; instrumental and non-instrumental motivations

Social participation and social capital in South Yorkshire Coalfield Communities

This article draws on responses from a 2004 survey of 3771 residents in nine South Yorkshire coalfield communities to explore levels of social participation and the relationship between social participation and social capital. The survey provides a relatively unusual data source as, in addition to collecting information about levels of participation, it elicits the type(s) of groups residents are involved with. The article provides two key messages for policy-makers and practitioners. The first relates to the findings and indicates that particular components of social capital are associated with particular types of social participation. The second relates to the survey methodology and demonstrates the importance of establishing the type(s) of groups that residents are involved with when examining levels of social participation.</p

Emotion processing and social participation following stroke : study protocol

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Promoting Social Participation for Healthy Ageing - A Counterfactual Analysis from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)

Promoting social participation of the older population (e.g. membership in voluntary associations) is often seen as a promising strategy for 'healthy ageing' in Europe. Although a growing body of academic literature challenges the idea that the link between social participation and health is well established, some statistical evidence suggest a robust positive relationship may exist for older people. One reason could be that aged people have more time to take part in social activities (due to retirement, fewer familial constraints, etc.); so that such involvement in voluntary associations contributes to maintain network size for social and emotional support; and preserves individuals' cognitive capacities. Using SHARE data for respondents aged fifty and over in 2004, this study proposes to test these hypotheses by evaluating the contribution of social participation to self-reported health (SRH) in eleven European countries. The probability to report good or very good health is calculated for the whole sample (after controlling for age, education, income and household composition) using regression coefficients estimated for individuals who do and for those who do not take part in social activities (with correction for selection bias in these two cases). Counterfactual national levels of SRH are derived from integral computation of cumulative distribution functions of the predicted probability thus obtained. The analysis reveals that social participation contributes by three percentage points to the increase in the share of individuals reporting good or very good health on average. Higher rates of social participation could improve health status and reduce health inequalities within the whole sample and within every country. Our results thus suggest that 'healthy ageing' policies based on social participation promotion may be beneficial for the aged population in Europe.Healthy ageing, Self-reported health, Social participation, Social capital, SHARE data, Counterfactual analysis, Stochastic dominance

A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Education on Social Capital

To assess the empirical estimates of the effect of education on social trust and social participation - the basic dimensions of individual social capital - a meta-analysis is applied, synthesizing 154 evaluations on social trust, and 286 evaluations on social participation. The publication bias problem is given special emphasis in the meta-analysis. Our statistical synthesis confirms that education is a strong and robust correlate of individual social capital. The meta-analysis provides support for the existence of a relative effect of education on social participation, and of a reciprocity mechanism between the dimensions of social capital. The analysis also suggests that the erosion of social participation during the past decades has coincided with a decrease of the marginal return to education on social capital. Finally, we find differences in the return to education between genders, between US and other nations, and variations for different education attainments.

Occupational Nature of Social Participation for Adolescent Males with Learning Disorders

OBJECTIVE. This study explored the effects of community team sports on social participation and life habit development for males ages 12-17 with a documented learning disorder. METHOD. A causal/comparative design compared two groups. A convenient sample of 24 participants completed Life Habits Questionnaire and Community Integration Questionnaire. Chi-square and T-test analysis were used. RESULTS. Results indicated social integration (t=4.56, p=.00) for boys who played a community sport was significantly higher than boys who did not play a community sport. The number and performance level of life habits was also significantly higher for boys who played a community team sport (t=3.23, p=.00). CONCLUSION. Community team sports positively influence both social participation and life habits associated with social responsibilities for adolescent boys with learning disorders. Occupational therapists should promote involvement in team sports as an adjunct to therapy or consider community team sport involvement as treatment improving social participation outcomes

Social participation in the aspect of a smart city development

Advanced technologies are entering citizens’ lives, which can be noticed at every turn. Society is becoming increasingly involved in building, creating and planning a city, district or the nearest place of residence. The quality of the functioning of the local community and the quality of life depend, to a large extent, on the level of social participation. The aim of social participation is to establish a mechanism for meeting citizens’ needs, and to achieve citizens’ acceptance of the authorities’ actions. Modern communication techniques greatly facilitate the expression of public opinion and public awareness in this regard has been on the rise. A growing number of new forms of communication using modern technologies are being developed all the time. The aim of the study is to analyse the forms of social participation in the city life, inter alia spending financial resources on its development. Attention is also drawn to the most recent ways in which the authorities communicate with the public in order for the latter to express their opinions on the former’s actions. Practical research was conducted for the city of Olsztyn located in the north-eastern part of Poland. Social activity forms were analysed, including those carried out using ICT technologies. The research shows that access to modern technologies facilitates contact between the city authorities and citizens, which ensures that the policy under implementation is kept in line with citizens’ expectations

Exploring personality-targeted UI design in online social participation systems

We present a theoretical foundation and empirical findings demonstrating the effectiveness of personality-targeted design. Much like a medical treatment applied to a person based on his specific genetic profile, we argue that theory-driven, personality-targeted UI design can be more effective than design applied to the entire population. The empirical exploration focused on two settings, two populations and two personality traits: Study 1 shows that users' extroversion level moderates the relationship between the UI cue of audience size and users' contribution. Study 2 demonstrates that the effectiveness of social anchors in encouraging online contributions depends on users' level of emotional stability. Taken together, the findings demonstrate the potential and robustness of the interactionist approach to UI design. The findings contribute to the HCI community, and in particular to designers of social systems, by providing guidelines to targeted design that can increase online participation. Copyright © 2013 ACM

Redefining Turkey's Regional Economic Disparities Through Social Participation

Social capital is a common concept for both describing and understanding economical, political and social wellbeing of community. Although it has been defined by economists and sociologists; social capital concept is also highlighted in regional development strategies. Accordingly, assessing the role of social capital in regional development and the impact of social capital to economic growth by means of empirical and theoretical studies has been an important issue in the literature. The relation between social capital and regional economic development in Turkey, as a developing country, has been put forth as the main theme of this paper. The paper aims to provide an overview of the concept of social capital for regional development and discuss social capital in terms of social participation depending on the work of Robert Putnam. Although interregional disparities in Turkey have been studied by many academicians, revealing their relationship with participation is rather new. Searching for this relationship, indicators of social participation is converted to social capital index and regression analysis have been used to explore the relation between social capital and regional economic development. During the construction of indicies, principal component analysis and factor analysis is used to determine the weights of each indicator. Thus, this paper evaluates the social participation in NUTS II level regions in order to foreseen regional disparities in the context of economic development. At this point it has been asserted that social capital in regions both explains and is a result of regional economic development.