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Research on social capital has often focused on interpersonal and political trust and how variation in these constructs across individual citizens and across countries is related to other aspects of social capital. Particular concern has been centred around the relationship between civic engagement and trust (Brehm and Rahn 1997) and also on the relationship between interpersonal trust and political trust (Newton 2001). In this paper we take advantage of structural equation modelling techniques that allow us to integrate both individual and country level information to explore the interrelations between social and political trust and civic engagement. We fit a series of models that begin by estimating the zero-order correlation between these constructs, qua latent variables, and then test for potential mechanisms that might explain the observed associations. Using a range of socio-demographic and personality variables, we find that the oft-cited link between trusting and civic engagement does not stand up well, while the correlation between political trust and interpersonal trust is relatively robust. We conclude by drawing out some conclusions from these results in relation to debates in social capital research.

The vast majority of studies investigating the antecedents of interpersonal trust are limited by their reliance on cross-sectional data. In this paper, we make use of highquality repeated measures data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to examine the effect of a range of theoretically related explanatory variables on subsequent levels of interpersonal trust over a six year period. We employ a fixed effects specification with lagged covariates to control for the time-invariant characteristics of individuals that might spuriously link our explanatory variables to subsequent changes in trust. We contrast the results of our fixed effects model with cross-sectional and a repeated measures random effects specifications, which do not control for unobserved individual heterogeneity. While the cross-sectional and random effects models show substantial effects of life events on subsequent levels of trust, the fixed effects specification shows only two significant explanatory variables. The only events found to predict a future increase in trust are obtaining a post-compulsory educational qualification, and improving one's perception of the financial situation of the household. These results lead us to conclude that existing correlational studies of the causes of interpersonal trust are likely to be affected by endogeneity bias. Additionally, the small number of significant predictors of trust found in the fixed effects model lends support to the idea that interpersonal trust is a relatively stable social value, developed early in the life-course and relatively resistant to 'life events' in the short to medium term.

The Social Policy and Research Centre (SPRC) at the University of New South Wales and the University of Western Sydney were commissioned by Families First to conduct the Understanding the Local Service Network Project for the South East Sydney Families First Area (hereafter South East Sydney). The project aimed to examine the impact of the network of services supporting families and children in the years prior to school, and in their transition to school. The focus was on understanding how effectively the service network meets the needs of families, as well as identifying gaps or barriers in service provision. There are two elements to the research findings: factors facilitating and inhibiting transition to school; and operations of the local service network providing support to children and families.

Social rights are important and popular, but the socially inclusive activities they mandate carry a financial cost. They are thus supported by welfare, and undermined by threats such as commodification, stratification and familialisation identified by Gosta Esping Andersen. Welfare should thus support social interaction, and with it social capital. I examine the theoretical relationship between welfare and social rights via the study of social capital. Social capital is a useful but contested concept, with ongoing confusion over indicators and (negative) outcomes. However, I argue that the bonding/bridging distinction offers a good way past these problems. Bonding and bridging incorporate two types of networks and two types of trust. Bonding is more exclusive and based upon rational familiarity, while bridging is more inclusive and based upon norms of civility. I suggest that norms of trust inherent to bridging social capital are supported by universal welfare regimes, whilst rational familiarity-based trust inherent to bonding social capital must play substitute when welfare regimes encourage individual and familial reliance instead. I argue that a shift from bridging to bonding and a loss in social rights is taking place, as welfare is rendered more punitive, stigmatised, and individualised within liberal welfare countries like Australia.

Social capital is a relatively new concept compared to welfare, though debates on the advantages of different welfare regimes and thelinks between state provision and social participation are tentatively connecting the two areas. Esping-Andersen classifies welfareregimes into three types - market-focused liberal, status-focused corporatist, and equality-focused social democratic regimes. Each hasbeen well studied with regards to the effects of commodification (market dependency), stratification (inequality and stigma), andfamilialisation (paternalistic family dependency). However, such focus largely upon economic rather than social concerns. This thesisexamines the proposition that welfare can ‘build society’ by promoting these social aspects otherwise known as social capital.The social capital concept has definition and measurement problems with causality and the capture of social activities rather than justnorms. Acknowledging, this, social capital is preferably defined from the literature as norms of trust, networks of associationmembership, and practices of volunteering and socialising. A critical reading highlights the importance of separating bonding socialcapital, as captured in Bourdieu and Coleman’s exclusive networks, from bridging social capital, more akin to Putnam’s civil societyand thus closer to social welfare. This thesis examines numerous empirical measures of bridging social capital, by looking at normsand networks through the World Values Survey, and practices through the Multinational Time Use Study across nine OECD countries.Results show that social democratic welfare regimes do promote social capital, with high levels of trust, membership and socialactivity. Corporatist welfare regimes show low but constant levels of social capital, whilst liberal welfare regimes have experienceddeclines in trust. Increasingly means-tested liberal regimes register high levels of commodification, with poor work-leisure balances,and are also more stratified with

Sustainability is fashionable and becoming more important to the general policy discourse on protecting the environment. However, despite government adopting a National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development some twelve years ago, Australia’s performance on crucial items such as emissions of carbon dioxide equivalents remains poor. Arguably then, for the environmental cause to be advanced substantially, not only must people’s attitudes toward protecting the environment change, but also their voting intentions so as to send a signal to the major political parties. This paper presents internationally comparative research using data from the most recent waves of the World Values Survey. Changes in preferences associated with support for the environment are contrasted against changes in intentions to vote for Green political parties. Results indicate the strength and direction of the Green movement, and highlight gaps in the conversion of environmental values into votes.

Social capital is a contentious and multifaceted topic. A broad consensus has been reached, however, that norms such as trust, networks of association membership, and practices of volunteering and socializing are essential to its makeup. It is also increasingly recognized that such elements fall into two distinct types of social capital – bonding and bridging. Social structural influences, such as welfare, have an effect upon social capital. A common conservative conception is that welfare induces dependency and thereby erodes social capital; this can be called the ‘dependency hypothesis’. I suggest this is largely limited to bonding capital only, however. I suggest an alternative, that welfare cutbacks or contingencies upon mutual obligation or status preservation is socially divisive. I call this the ‘division hypothesis’, and it is relevant to the more definitively positive bridging capital. This paper shows trends in bridging social capital in nine OECD countries of differing welfare regime type from 1981 to 2000. It uses data from the most recent versions of the World Values Survey and Multinational Time Use Study. It suggests that welfare regime type, and importantly, welfare regime re-structuring, bears strong relations to national levels of bridging social capital.

The draft children’s services regulation announced in April 2004 included a minimum standard staff child ratio of 1:5 for children aged under 2 years in centre-based and mobile children’s services. The 2002 draft regulation proposed a better staff child ratio of 1:4. This research examined the likely impact of the 1:4 staff child ratio. The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report commissioned by the NSW Department of Community Services found that the balance of benefits and costs supported the 2002 draft regulation of 1:4 staff child ratio, even under worst case scenarios (PWC, 2003). National and international research on a minimum staff child ratio for care of children aged under 2 years supports a 1:4 ratio. It is consistent with NSW Government commitment to early childhood development, national and international recommended standards, outcomes for children and improving the availability of qualified and experienced early childhood staff.

Social capital is a theoretically confusing concept, but one which nonetheless has much to offer as a potential measure of the strength of societies. It is in need of theoretical examination. This paper will outline the major theoretical aspects of social capital in relation to its three main component parts – values (such as trust), the networks such values are relevant to, and the practices (such as volunteering) related to those values and networks. It will also outline the major problems with the concept identified in the literature so far, including conceptual issues such as tautology and outcomes, the issue of who owns social capital, the possibility of different types or ‘axes’ of social capital – bonding and bridging – crowding each other out, and the existence of negative social capital (which incorporates issues of ‘victim blaming’). In addition, two more uncommon problems specific to measurement are identified. The first is the predominance of analysing only the micro-individual demographic influences upon social capital – or the bias towards agency. Social capital is seen as shaped by individuals through their personal characteristics. However, large macro-social forces shape social capital as well. Such forces are more structural in nature, and are embedded within material reality. Four macro-social forces stand out in particular – materialism, inequality, gender-family dynamics, and cultural clashes – and their impacts are in need of measurement. This leads onto the final problem with social capital; choosing the appropriate level at which to analyse trends. International comparison to identify ‘emergent properties’ and policies peculiar to countries or clusters of countries that influence social capital is needed, particularly in relation to the influence of macro-social forces. Analysing clusters of countries by welfare regime is suggested here to these ends. In the final section of the paper, hypothetical connections are drawn between established so

This report provides estimates of a new comfortably affluent but sustainable (CAS) budget standard for older Australians. The CAS standard reflects a standard of living among older, healthy and fully active self-funded retired Australian that allows them to engage actively with a broad range of leisure and recreational activities without having to require a rapid or substantial disbursement of assets. It represents a lifestyle that is common amongst those in the top (income) quintile of the aged population. A budget standard estimates what is needed to attain a specific standard by a particular household living in a particular place at a particular time. This involves specifying the items required to achieve the standard and pricing them to arrive at the income level that would support the necessary level of consumption. Budget standards incorporate expert assessments of the level of consumption of goods and services and participation in different activities that can be supported by a given level of income. Among their many uses, budget standards can be used to benchmark the adequacy of government income support payments and the relativities between payments for different families.

Now as in the past, studies of community are lacking in their analysis of structural factors that influence communities. Theoretical analysis of community lacks regard for structure and agency. I suggest that Bourdieu's theory of practice and Honeth's ideas concerning recognition provide mechanism and motivation to address the structure and agency conflict, and inform more sophisticated studies of community. Communities are best served when the practices by which they operate are generalised and inclusive in nature, thus maximising interaction between people of difference and multiplying pathways of recognition. Such communities are characterised by norms of generalised trust and networks of bridging social capital. However, corrosive global structural forces - materialism, inequality and changing household dynamics - pose challenges to such communities. I propose that such forces 'crowd out' generalised bridging capital in favour of more particularised bonding capital. Bonding, premised on rational-calculation, is easier to maintain then widespread norms of trust when agents are set adrift from structural support. A few societies provide the support - in the form of universal welfare - to counteract the global structural forces. The rest are subject to increasing bonding and particularisation, and a loss of the recognition that stems from maintaining a tolerant, open and trusting community.

Sustainability is fashionable and becoming more important to the general policy discourse on protecting the environment. However, despite government adopting a National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development some twelve years ago, Australia's performance on crucial items such as emissions of carbon dioxide equivalents remains poor. Arguably then, for the environmental cause to be advanced substantially, not only must people's attitudes toward protecting the environment change, but also their voting intentions so as to send a signal to the major political parties. This paper presents internationally comparative research using data from the most recent waves of the World Values Survey. Changes in preferences associated with support for the environment are contrasted against changes in intentions to vote for Green political parties. Results indicate the strength and direction of the Green movement, and highlight gaps in the conversion of environmental values into votes.