Social capital and civic action: A network-based approach

We propose that social capital, defined as resources embedded in individual and organizational networks, produces expressive and instrumental civic actions. The 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey data were used to examine the hypothesis. Structural equation modeling confirmed that (1) individual social capital was the consistent and significant predictor of both expressive and instrumental civic actions; (2) organizational social capital played the most important role in predicting instrumental civic actions, although it was not significant in predicting expressive civic actions; and (3) civic actions are gendered: women were more likely to be involved in expressive civic actions, but the female dominance disappeared in the realm of instrumental civic actions.