Social capital and community wellbeing in Scotland

1: Introduction

This report is about ‘social capital’ - the product from the social connections and interactions in communities.

Social capital contributes to people’s wellbeing through their lives, and is formed and maintained in the places where people live, work, learn, run businesses, and interact with friends, colleagues and neighbours. These social connections contribute to quality of life (e.g. health, safety, wellbeing, and social resilience) in the neighbourhoods where people live.

Evidence has shown how social capital can also bring a range of positive outcomes, including social, health, economic and civic benefits. Social capital strengthens neighbourhoods, with evidence that stronger, more cohesive and self-sustaining communities can lead to reduced demand for more expensive public services.

This report provides information about the extent and nature of people’s connections with others. It draws on a range of data (statistical and qualitiative) from different groups of people and places.

It sets out how we can measure social capital. It provides deeper insight into the nature and experiences of communities in Scotland, and explores changes in social capital since 2018/19, at both a national level and for subgroups of people.

The report concludes with a focus on areas for further research, and suggestions for improving social capital in Scotland.

What is social capital and why is it important?

Social capital

Social capital is the outcome from human connections, relationships and interactions, that helps to maintain wellbeing for citizens now and in the future.

It can be a complex subject and different organisations may emphasise certain elements. A definition from Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH) focuses on relationships and support networks, interconnections between communities, and people and communities’ involvement in the decisions that affect their lives.

Social capital is seen as a measure of the connections within and between social networks, involving the institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality and quantity of a society’s social interactions.^[8]

Similarly, the Office for National Statistics focus on connections, and the collective attititudes and behaviours that support well functioning societies. This includes people’s relationships, social network support, civic engagement, trust and cooperative norms.^[9]

The OECD include the ‘instutional arrangements that foster co-operation’ in their understanding and measurement of social capital. This focuses on the role of governments in promoting community cohesion, by measuring levels of corruption, governments’ engagement with stakeholders on decision making, and how inclusive parliaments are.^[10]

Although there are different definitions of social capital, there are common themes. This includes the availability of supportive networks, community cohesion, and social participation to improve the places where communities live, learn, work, and the full range of activities, and diverse communities, that people engage in through their lives. It also includes how much power people have, and feel they have, over their circumstances; their influence on local decision-making; and their actions to improve local issues.

The importance of social capital

Social connections are a source of pleasure and satisfaction in their own right, but they also contribute towards quality of life, including how connected and engaged people are.^[11] Social connections and relationships increase life expectancy.^[12] Having access to public spaces, parks and green spaces, and social connectedness, all improve wellbeing.^[13] Volunteering also has wellbeing benefits.^[14]

Social connections help people and communities to cope with adversity, and enable changes in circumstances through employment, skills and educational opportunities.^[15] They provide opportunities for meeting new people, and accessing the organisations and processes that have power and help people to make decisions over their lives.

A 2022 Rapid Evidence Review from the UK Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) found evidence that interventions that enhanced social capital can lead to a range of potential economic, health, social and civic outcomes.^[16] Interventions to tackle social issues, regenerate deprived areas and create public spaces can lead to less pressure on hospitals and improved health, especially mental health.

Initiatives such as time banks, befriending and community navigators can reduce social isolation, build skills and confidence, leading to increases in employment or volunteering, reductions in health visits, and more appropriate and timely access to public services.^[17]

This suggests that there could be a preventative function of social capital, with stronger and more supportive communities reducing the demand for more expensive public services.^[18]

Additionally, an independent analysis in 2021 for the Local Trust by Frontier Economics^[19] found that a £1 million investment in social infrastructure in a ‘left behind area’ would expect over 10 years to deliver £3.2 million in economic, social and fiscal benefits. This included for instance benefits via increased employment, health and wellbeing, reduced crime, tax and benefit savings and healthcare savings.

Social infrastructure

Social capital is often created and maintained in physical spaces where people meet and interact in their neighbourhoods. This is called ‘social infrastructure’, and includes libraries, parks and swimming pools, cafes, shops, workplaces, community hubs, public transport, health centres, and community gardens.^[20]

Some of these places are provided by government but social infrastructure is also provided by private businesses and voluntary organisations. Research has shown that when people take part in day-to-day activities such as shopping, exercise and leisure, this enables social connections and relationships to form in communities, and trust, social ties and shared purpose to develop.^[21]

These social spaces, particularly where they are affordable and accessible, enable the growth of social ties between different groups in communities.^[22]

Four themes of social capital

This report looks at four inter-related aspects of social capital to consider how strong our social connections are in Scotland, how these are distributed in different places and subgroups of the population, the areas where there are lower levels of social capital, and what might be the priorities for action. These are:

• Social Networks – The quality of people’s friendships, relationships, and contacts; the provision of supportive help to people in their neighbourhood; and how connected and supported they perceive themselves to be.
• Community Cohesion – How people feel about their neighbourhoods; their safety; how far they experience trust and kindness; the opportunities and infrastructure that enables people to meet others, and people from different backgrounds.
• Community Empowerment – The control that people have, and feel they have, over their circumstances; their influence on local decision-making; and their actions to improve local issues. This form of capital helps people to link with government, authorities and sources of political power.
• Social Participation – The time given up to support local clubs, groups, organisations, or improve the local environment, in a paid or unpaid capacity. This helps to increase connections and bonds within communities, and also to help build social bridges across and between communities.

COVID-19, cost of living and social capital

As well as looking at data trends about social capital in Scotland over time, this report also considers the impact of the COVID pandemic, which had potentially wide-reaching societal and wellbeing impacts that affected how people live, work, and connect to each other.

There is a variety of existing evidence about these impacts, that have informed the analysis of these questions within this report.

Increases in social restrictions, including on work, travel and social distancing, led to increased loneliness, social isolation and anxiety. ^{[23], [24]} Some groups, and some places, were more affected than others. This included, for instance, disabled people, minority ethnic groups, younger people and those living in deprived areas.^[25]

However, there were also positives. At the beginning of the pandemic some people and communities came together, with large initial increases of people volunteering to help others.^[26] Neighbourhood cohesion also stayed high, with the vast majority saying if they needed help they could go to one of their neighbours.^[27]

As the threat from the pandemic began to decrease, prices began to rise sharply leading to a cost of living crisis. This resulted in a drop to people’s living standards. In particular, for low income households, there was a considerable negative impact on their mental and physical health.^[28] People’s spending habits also changed. For example, some were cutting back on their social lives and visiting friends and family less often due to the price of travel.^[29]

It is useful to consider any possible impact from these events, from a social capital perspective.

This is the first report since the beginning of the pandemic to compare Scottish Household Survey data relating to neighbourhoods and social connections. It will update what is known about social capital, highlight differences between groups and places, and, given the experiences of the past few years, show what has changed over time since 2018/19.

A note on terms

The term ‘social capital’ is widely used as a measure of our connections and relationships, but there are some things to bear in mind.

First, describing social connections as a ‘capital’ is intended to highlight their importance and value to our societal wellbeing and social economy, but is not intended to suggest that these are primarily monetary or monetizable assets.

Second, social capital is not always positive and there are ways in which social connections may have a negative impact on society. Social connections that exist strongly within a single group identity may lead to friction with other groups and create ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’. They can also create informal expectations and obligations that are unwanted by members of the group. It is therefore important to understand the extent to which there is a sense of belonging, cohesion and contact between different social groups.

Third, there are research gaps in understanding some of the more structural and long-term drivers of social connection and relationships, and the impact of market and government activity on these. Social capital needs to be understood in the wider context of the social and economic activities and events that help to work for and against it. The Glasgow Centre for Population Health have explained how the concept of social capital is a problem if it implies that communities are disadvantaged as a result of a perceived lack of social connections, as opposed to the real root causes of poverty and disadvantage.^[30]

How social capital is measured

Social capital can be measured and understood through quantitative approaches like surveys, and with qualitative research such as observation, interviews, case studies and ethnography. This report uses primarily survey data, with information also from qualitative research, and focuses on the following questions:

• What are the levels of social capital in Scotland?
• How is social capital distributed across social groups and geographies, and what groups and places have lower levels?
• Have there been changes since 2018/19 in social capital at a national level, or for population subgroups?
• How are the elements of social capital felt and experienced by people in the places they live and spend their time?

Approaches for understanding social capital

To answer these questions, the report uses three approaches to consider the levels, distribution and nature of social capital in Scotland:

Data index – Survey variables in the Scottish Household Survey provide a way of tracking changes in measures of social capital over time and under each of the four social capital themes (see Annex D for more detail on the index and Annex E for more detail on the SHS).

Disaggregation – Levels of social capital vary across different places and social groups. Scottish Household Survey data has been broken down further, to understand what levels are like for people of different ages, sex, ethnicity, housing, disabled people, areas of higher deprivation.

Experiences of social capital – Statistics can only provide a particular account on the quality of social connections. This report also includes findings from the People’s Panel^[31], and a recent ‘free-text’ survey on cultural engagement [Annex F]. Quotes are included throughout the report to illustrate how social capital can feel for different people in different places and spaces.