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Social Distance and Structural Social Capital of Croatian Students

Along the lines of Putnam’s (2008) findings of positive correlation between social capital and tolerance, this article is aimed at examining the relationship between the social involvement of Croatian students as a structural dimension of social capital and the level of social distance towards the main ethnic groups of the former Yugoslavia. The empirical data was collected in 2010 on a representative national sample of 2000 regular students from all universities in Croatia. For the purpose of this article, only respondents of Croat ethnicity were included in the statistical analysis (N= 1618). The structural dimension is operationalized in associational membership and volunteering and the expressed readiness for some form of civic action. Associational membership alone does not imply low expression of social distance ; hence these data do not entirely support Putnam’s findings. The results however do suggest that the type of association and readiness for civic action are connected to the level of acceptance of ethnic groups, so it may be said that our hypothesis was only partially confirmed.

structural social capital, social ethnic distance, voluntary associations, university students, Croatia

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