Download Social cohesion and subjective wellbeing

Happier together:
Social cohesion and
subjective well-being
Jan Delhey
Jacobs University Bremen
Bertelsmann Cohesion Radar project
www.social-cohesion.net
GLADS
Good Lives
individual well-being
(“quality of life”)
and
Decent Societies
societal well-being
(“quality of society”)
e.g. social cohesion
Concerns about cohesion:
 cohesion refers to a specific aspect of a society’s collective quality of life:
the solidarity exhibited by the people of that society. In other words,
cohesion describes the sense of community and the degree of
brotherhood that exist.
 Collective property, not an individual.
 Social cohesion is believed to be challenged: growing ethno-cultural
diversity; a widening gap between rich and poor; technological changes;
welfare state retrenchments; Euro-crisis....
 A gap in the social reporting landscape (Legatum Prosperity Index 8
dimensions, social capital; Index of Social Progress 10 dimensions,
social chaos)
Scope of the study
 34 countries
 over 20 years (collapsed into
four time periods)
Our concept of social cohesion
Overlap with other studies, e.g. Chan (2006)
Data sources: Survey data, expert ratings and process data
The international cohesion ranking
…in more detail
Cohesion:
quite stable
over time
Cohesion strong in rich societies
Determinants of social cohesion
 National income (GDP p.c.)
 Knowledge economy
 Income inequality
 (Unemployment rate)
 Importance of religion
 Postmaterialist value climate
What’s not influencing cohesion:
Ethnic fractionalization; migration (excpetion: migration from Eastern European)
Masculine/feminine culture (Hofstede)
The effect on SWB
Normative perspective vs. happiness perspective
 The more – the better? Or mixed blessing (cf. dark sides of social
cohesion)
 Equally important for rich and poor societies?
 Equally important for more/less vulnerable groups?
LifeSat higher in cohesive societies
Which components of SWB are
enhanced by cohesion?
EU countries only; EQLS
Cohesion more important in rich
countries
EU countries only; EQLS
Cohesion is good for all:
less vs. more vulnerable groups
EU countries only; EQLS
In summary
 Social cohesion is focusing on one important aspect of a “decent
society”.
 Social cohesion mainly depends on economic conditions, equality, and
the value climate.
 Citizens have higher SWB in more cohesive societies (Western Europe
in particular).
 Cohesion is good for all.
 More important than GDP (GDP works through cohesion).
We are happier together!