From Funding Civil Initiatives to Creating Social Capital to Establishing Sustainable Economic Development in the Wadden
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From funding civil initiatives to creating social capital to establishing sustainable economic development in the Wadden Wild expectations or a solid strategy? Master’s Programme Society, Sustainability and Planning 24-06-2021 by Adriaan van der Veer, student number 2567199 Supervised by Christian Lamker Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Faculty of Spatial Sciences Abstract With this research, it is tried to gain insight into the effects of civil initiatives on social capital. The Waddenfonds funds these initiatives, and it is unclear what the effect of this effort is on their objective to help establish sustainable economic development. The Waddenfonds tries to reach this objective by funding civil initiatives in order to create and sustain social capital, which should help establish sustainable economic development. Social capital is defined as resources embedded in a social structure, which are accessed in purposive actions. In this research, social capital was subdivided in bonding, bridging and linking social capital. The main goal of this research was to evaluate the effects the funding has had on social capital and sustainable economic development. Therefore, a questionnaire was developed and conducted with participants (N=87) living in areas where the funded initiatives took place. The findings implied that the initiatives mostly created bonding social capital, rather than bridging social capital. However, in order to help establish sustainable economic development, bridging social capital is needed and an important condition. The effort of the Waddenfonds has helped the initiatives and the goals of the initiatives, but it remains unclear if it has helped establish sustainable economic development. Key words: civil initiatives, social capital, sustainable economic development, rurality. Acknowledgements I could not have wrote this thesis alone or without help. The completion of this thesis is the clear end of my studentship of an healthy 8 years, and I have to mention some people who have contributed, knowingly or unknowingly, to this document. First, my supervisor Christian Lamker, who I have never even met in person (yet), but who has provided me with incredibly useful insights and gave sharp remarks throughout the year. Sometimes it was not clear to me what the goal was at the moment, but you always knew. Thank you for that. Then my good friends Martijn and Tinco. The first who knows much more than me about statistics, SPSS and klieven, and who has helped me with the statistics and with staying sane. The second who found himself the time to read nearly everything I wrote and who provided me with some great remarks on nearly everything I wrote. I am also very grateful towards the people at the Waddenfonds. First of all, Allard, who was my internship supervisor. Our talks, first online and later in real life, helped a lot. And a special thanks to the ladies at the secretary. It was a delight to be working next to you at the office in Leeuwarden and I will surely pay a visit in the foreseeing time. At last, I want to thank my family for letting me stay at home-home whenever I thought I needed it. I was always able to talk about the subject I wrote this thesis on, and although I don’t think I was always fully understood, it was still the case that my problem was solved at the end of the chat. And finally a thanks to Joran, where I was always welcome to come work in the office garden. Despite I did not show up as much in the end and when I did before I was most of the time very late, it still means a lot to me that I was always welcome. Table of contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................. 3 Table of contents .................................................................................................................................................... 4 Index........................................................................................................................................................................ 6 List of figures ...................................................................................................................................................... 6 List of tables ........................................................................................................................................................ 6 Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Context of the research ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Problematization and relevance ......................................................................................................................... 8 A conceptual model ............................................................................................................................................ 9 Readers guide ................................................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2: Theoretical framework ........................................................................................................................ 11 Rurality.............................................................................................................................................................. 11 Four approaches ........................................................................................................................................... 11 Rurality as a social representation ................................................................................................................ 12 Social capital ..................................................................................................................................................... 13 Reciprocity, honesty and trustworthiness .................................................................................................... 14 Bonding social capital and bridging social capital ......................................................................................... 14 Linking social capital...................................................................................................................................... 15 Social capital in a rural context ..................................................................................................................... 16 Civil initiatives ................................................................................................................................................... 17 Participation and citizenship ......................................................................................................................... 17 Typologies and participation ladders ............................................................................................................ 17 Defining civil initiatives ................................................................................................................................. 18 Civil initiatives in a rural context ................................................................................................................... 19 Civil initiatives and social capital ................................................................................................................... 19 Sustainable economic development ................................................................................................................ 20 Sustainable economic development and social capital ................................................................................ 22 Methodology ......................................................................................................................................................... 24 Research design: literature research and a questionnaire method ................................................................. 24 The Wadden area ............................................................................................................................................. 24 The initiatives and how the Waddenfonds works ............................................................................................ 26 The participants and participant profile ........................................................................................................... 26 Contents of the questionnaire .......................................................................................................................... 27 Procedure of data collection ............................................................................................................................ 28 Limitations and ethical considerations in the procedure ................................................................................. 28 Data preparation and statistical analysis .......................................................................................................... 29 Limitations of the statistical analysis ...............................................................................................................