Het belang van taalkeuze voor het sociaal kapitaal in Nederland

Abstract

This article focuses on how language choice and how the language (variety) spoken at home contributes to social capital in the Netherlands. Social capital is measured using 17 participation and trust indicators, based on a representative Dutch national survey on social cohesion and well-being among more than 7,500 people aged 15 years or older in 2019. Our study shows that if a dialect or the regional language Low Saxon is most often spoken at home, individuals’ trust level is lower, while participation is higher compared to the group that most often uses Dutch at home. Limburgish and Frisian are not related to trust and/or participation. Crucially, this study reveals that the social capital index overall is not related to language but the two parts of it: trust and participation.