Social Cohesion: Measurement Based on the Data from European Value Study

1
Social Cohesion Measurement Based on the Data
from European Value Study

• Paul Dickes,
• Marie Valentova,
• Monique Borsenberger
• CEPS/Instead, Luxembourg

2
General outlines of the paper

• Aims
• To test empirically validity of the Bernards
  definition of social cohesion.
• To construct a measurement/s of social cohesion
  using micro-level data.
• Data
• European Value Study (EVS) 1999, representative
  sample of the Luxembourgish population, N1211
  individuals aged 18 years and older.
• EVS contains a great number of subjective and
  objective items that measure attitudes toward and
  behaviour regarding social relations,
  participation, and trust at many levels of social
  reality as well as in many spheres of everyday
  life, which more or less correspond to dimensions
  of social cohesion covered by the Bernards
  theory.
• Methodology
• Multidimensional scaling, Confirmatory factor
  analysis.

3
Theoretical framework Bernards integrated
conceptual scheme of social cohesion
Sphere Nature of relations Nature of relations
Sphere Formal / attitudinal Substantial / behavioural
Economic Case A Insertion/exclusion Case D Equality/inequality
Political Case B Legitimacy/illegitimacy Case E Participation/passivity
Socio-cultural Case C Acceptance/rejection Case F Affiliation/isolation
4
Operationalization 18 indicators of social
cohesion based on the EVS data
Sphere Relations Relations
Sphere Formal/ attitudinal Substantial/behavioural
Economic IN01 income insertion
Political IN02 Confidence in national distributive systems IN03 Confidence in national organizations IN04 Confidence in authority institutions IN05 Political adherence IN06 Intended voting participation IN11 Participation in legal political activities IN12 Participation in illegal political activities IN13 Political interest
Socio- cultural IN07 Proximal solidarity IN08 Vulnerable people solidarity IN09 Family solidarity IN10 Intention of solidarity  IN14 Involvement in social activities/associations IN15 Involvement in political activities/ associations IN16 Involvement in cultural activities/associations IN17 Involvement in youth and leisure activities/associations IN18 Intensity of social relations
5
MDS Multidimensional representation of the 18
social cohesion indicators
6
Model 1 six oblique latent factors
7
Model 2 Hierarchical representation with two
correlated second-order factors
8
Model 3 Hierarchical representation with two
orthogonal second-order factors
9
Model 4 Hierarchical representation with one
second-order factor
10
Concluding remarks

• Conclusions
• The results of multidimensional scaling reveal
  that Bernards conceptualisation of social
  cohesion can be confirmed.
• Using confirmatory factor analysis, we estimated
  four distinctive adequate models These four
  models allow us to calculate different factor
  scores of social cohesion, which can be used to
  answer different research questions and compare
  different population subgroups.
• Comments
• The indicators do not cover perfectly all
  dimensions of Bernards integral theoretical
  scheme. Due to the data restrictions, we used
  only one indicator to cover formal economic
  sphere and none for the substantial dimension of
  economic sphere.
• All these above proposed measurements of social
  cohesion are issued from the data of one country
  collected at one point in time. It is necessary
  that in the future the above described
  measurement sof social cohesion could be
  replicated on the 2008 EVS data set and thus
  cross-validated across time and across
  countries.