Capitale sociale e cultura civile in Italia. L'ipotesi di mediazione dei reticoli sociali nel rapporto tra caratteristiche individuali e cultura civile

This thesis deals with the relationship between the concepts of social capital and civil culture. In much of the literature civil culture corresponds to the concept of social capital as it represents its enunciation. Instead, the main hypothesis of this research is that social capital acts as a mediator between the characteristics of individuals and their civil culture. For a more specific level the research hypothesis states that the presence of bridging social capital fosters the presence of more civil culture. The analysis of political science and sociological literature and empirical works in which the two concepts are related shows the possibility of assuming that social capital is involved in the relationship between the individual and its civil culture, with an effort of mediation. The theoretical approach used to study the two concepts is the one of relational sociology, integrated at the methodological level with social networks analysis. The central hypothesis of the research was tested using structural equation models for latent variables, suitable to test causal links between theoretical constructs not observable directly, for which the only available indicators are their outcomes. Empirically, data from a national survey had been used, collecting also form and content characteristics of respondents' support networks. The results of the application of structural equation modeling show that the mediation hypothesis shall not be refused on the basis of empirical data and the role of bridging social capital for the presence of civil culture is highlighted. Finally, among the main outcomes of the research, it has been reported the robustness of the theoretical analysis for the concept of civil culture using relational sociology and for the definition of social capital adopted.