Replication Data for: How social capital matters for receiving social support: On the complementary role of civil society in the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a widespread need for social support. Similar to previous crises, we can observe activation in society to meet these needs: citizens have offered practical, emotional, and financial support, often within their social networks, but also to strangers and civil society organisations. In this paper, we examine the role of social capital in receiving social support during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany using unique micro-level survey data. We examine the importance of three aspects of social capital – the size of one’s support network, social trust, and organisational membership – for receiving (sufficient) social support. We focus on three types of support networks: family and friends, neighbours, and civil society actors. First, we find that while all three elements of social capital matter for receiving social support in the first place, a larger support network and organisational embeddedness matter primarily for receiving support beyond family and friendship networks. Second, civil society actors have been less likely to provide sufficient support in the pandemic, mainly acting in addition to strong ties and providing complementary support for individuals in particular need.

新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）疫情大流行催生了全社会对社会支持的广泛需求。与既往危机类似，本次疫情中可见社会各界为满足此类需求而积极行动：公民不仅常在自身社交网络内提供实用、情感与经济支持，还会向陌生人及民间社会组织（civil society organisations）提供帮助。本研究依托独特的微观层面（micro-level）调查数据，探究了德国新冠疫情大流行期间社会资本（social capital）在个体获取社会支持过程中的作用。我们重点考察了社会资本的三个维度——个人支持网络规模、社会信任与组织成员身份——对获取（充足）社会支持的重要性，并聚焦三类支持网络：亲友、邻里与民间社会组织行动者。研究结果显示：其一，尽管社会资本的三大要素均对获取社会支持具有基础性作用，但更大的支持网络规模与组织嵌入性（organisational embeddedness）主要助力个体获取亲友圈层之外的社会支持；其二，民间社会组织行动者在疫情期间提供充足支持的概率相对更低，其主要作为强纽带（strong ties）支持的补充，为有特定需求的个体提供补充性支持。