Social Capital and Political Participation: a Case Study of Higher Education Students in York

Abstract This thesis explores higher education students’ social capital and how the resources produced by the mechanisms of social capital affect their political participation. Many studies have sought to explore social capital empirically but research on HE students has been overlooked in the British context. Hence there is limited research related to the resources through which social capital affects HE students’ political participation. This study involved qualitative research with 29 current and former HE students based in York, UK. The participants were aged between 18 and 24 years old and semi-structured interviews were used as the research method. This case study discusses, first, four mechanisms of social capital which HE education students have at their disposal: family and friendship networks, community networks, social network sites, and social trust. The findings suggest that these mechanisms generate resources of both bonding and bridging social capital. The resourceful ways in which the students experienced social capital were social interaction, social support, the sharing of information, a sense of belonging and a sense of identity. Second, the findings make the case that these resources produced by the mechanisms of social capital generate a higher frequency of political information and participation in both electoral and non-electoral forms of politics. Regarding political participation, the findings show that family and friends influence electoral political participation, including voting. Community networks were found to increase political information but there was a lack of evidence on their impact on political participation. Social network sites play a significant role in non-electoral forms of participation such as protesting, signing petitions and Do-It-Ourselves politics. The findings show that social trust is not an essential mechanism for political participation. Further studies are recommended into social capital as a potential mechanism for HE students’ political participation in Britain.