Service Club Membership and Forms of Social Capital among Swedish Community Elites

Abstract

Social clubs and other voluntary settings have repeatedly been pointed out as sites where social elites encounter each other and enjoy the opportunity to cultivate their within-elite personal relations under informal circumstances. Since elites' personal connections represent a non-trivial aspect of their entrepreneurial opportunity structures, i.e. how they are able to get things done, it is essential to understand the significance of voluntary activities for elites' personal networks. We lack, however, unequivocal knowledge about this. The aim of the present article is therefore to empirically explore how service club membership-one particularly prevalent form of voluntary activity among community elites-potentially affects such actors' personal networks. The study is theoretically informed by a network-based conception of individual-level social capital, and distinguishes between brokerage and closure forms of social capital-producing mechanisms. Empirically, the study draws upon data collected through personal interviews with 248 local elites (politicians, corporate leaders, civil servants, etc.) in four mid-sized Swedish municipalities, and focuses particularly on the potential effect of Rotary Club membership among the elites. The results suggest that Rotary Club membership may have an optimizing impact on local elites' personal networks, in terms of the relative prevalence of brokerage opportunities and tendencies towards social closure.

Voluntary Associations' Impact on the Composition of Active Members' Social Networks: Not an Either/Or Matter

“…To systematically disentangle the full set of causal mechanisms at work would require longitudinal data on both actors' membership activities in voluntary associations and their personal networks (cf. Farkas ; Glanville ). To the best of our knowledge, such data do not exist.…”

Trust, accountability and ‘the Other’ within the charitable context: U.K. service clubs and grant‐making activity

“…Charles (1993) provides an account of service clubs since their inception in the early 20th century. Other studies have focussed on membership demographics (Parsons & Mills, 2012); geographical spread (Wikle, 2009); and social capital implications (Farkas, 2012). Tadajewski (2017) observes the contribution of Rotary International toward business ethics, and highlights the intertwined nature of business and moral decision-making, in turn rejecting the separation thesis in the context of these initially seemingly competing themes of the pursuance of profit, and wider social responsibility.…”