ISTR Sixth International Conference Toronto, Canada / July 11-14, 2004 Contesting Citizenship and Civil Society in a Divided World

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	Abstracts

Social Capital, Citizenship and the Growth of Voluntary Sector in Taiwan
by
Chung-Hwa Ku
Department of Sociology, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan

In recent years, the concept of 'social capital' has become one of the most popular research topics within social science. This term refers to the network, norms and values (such as social trust, tolerance, cooperation) that link citizens to each other, and may be fostered by a variety of formal as well as informal interaction between members of society. Thus, the activities of voluntary associations have been seen as the indicator for examination the formation and change of social capital, as Robert Putnam's book "Bowling Alone" shows.

This paper will adopt the analytical framework of Robert Putnam, both in theoretical and empirical perspective, to explain the relationship between the building of social capital and the growth of voluntary sector (or 'non-profit sector') in Taiwan. I'll try to use different sources of data, especially the "Taiwan Social Change Survey" of the Academic Sinica (Taipei) to illustrate the changing role of voluntary /non-profit associations in Taiwanese society, and its implication for the development of social capital.

Finally, this paper also draws attention to the ongoing intellectual discourse on civil society and related concept of 'citizenship'. As we know, civil society has been seen as a crucial agent for strengthening citizen's participation, and improving the quality of governance. It is to exanimate whether voluntary /non-profit associations in Taiwan could meet the highest standards of transparency, accountability, and integrity. Using some example, I'd like to demonstrate that only when the voluntary /non-profit sector can win the trust of the whole society, they are able to build up more social capital and contribute more public good to the needed.

Date received: October 8, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # camm-44.