Waardencongruentie binnen vrijwillige verenigingen. Een sociaal-psychologisch verklaringsmodel voor de interactie van zelfselectie en socialisering

Samenvatting

Value Congruence in Voluntary Associations. A social-psychological explanation for the interaction between selfselection and socialisation. Summary: Social capital theory assumes that interaction in voluntary associations leads to the development of generalised trust, norms of reciprocity and stronger networks of civic engagement. Social-psychological research however does not offer any evidence for the introduction of qualitatively new values within a group as a result of intragroup interaction. This line of research does document, however, the existence of processes of value congruence within groups. An analysis of Belgian survey data (n=l341) demonstrates a negative relation between feelings of ethnocentrism and membership of voluntary associations. Closer analysis suggests that not all kinds of associations have this effect, but only those with highly educated members, and therefore presumably initially low levels of ethnocentrism. This finding supports the social psychological theory on context specific socialisation effects, while it offers little support for the thesis on generalised socialisation which is prevalent in the social capital debate.