Portuguese Journal of Social Science - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2006

Based on the results of the European Social Survey (ESS), this study characterizes the levels of subjective well-being (SWB) and social well-being (SoWB) in 20 European countries. The relationships between well-being, socio-demographic and behavioural variables (sociability and social participation) were also explored. Results show extremely low levels of well-being in Portugal as compared to the other European countries, but similar to other less-developed countries. Wealth of the country was, as usual, associated with SWB and also with SoWB. Overall, for developed countries, our results replicate the associations of SWB with age, marital status and income. However, in less-developed countries these associations with SWB are different: it is positively associated with income and negatively associated with age; it is higher in individuals that were never married and is more strongly related to sociability. These results challenge a universal model of well-being and stress its contextual and social determinants.

Based on data from nineteen countries participating in the European Social Survey 2002, the Schwartz model of social values is analysed in three perspectives: structure, importance and consensus. Results show the equivalence of Schwartz's values structure in the countries analysed. A multi-level analysis was performed in order to test the impact of both individual (family income) and contextual (Gross Domestic Product purchasing power parity GDP ppp) factors on value priorities. Differences in the importance people attribute to values were identified between countries, but results from the multi-level analysis showed that GDP ppp as well as family income were not good predictors of value priorities. In what concerns value consensus, and contrary to some previous results reported in the literature, a negative correlation between socio-economic development and consensus was found, suggesting that the higher the socio-economic development, the higher the social heterogeneity and complexity of social values.

Social capital is an increasingly popular concept among scientists, politicians and the media. It is regarded as a remedy for many of the failures of modern society and seen as wonder glue conducive to feelings of happiness and to better performing economies and democracies. In this article we are not so much concerned with the consequences of social capital for society, but we focus on why some people have higher levels of social capital than others. We argue that this is not only due to a number of personal characteristics but also to contextual or country features. We therefore formulate hypotheses about the effects of individual and macro or country characteristics that were tested using the survey data from the European Social Survey (2002). The results demonstrate that the impact of macro characteristics is rather modest compared to the effects of individual attributes. It also seems that social capital is a multifaceted phenomenon that cannot be captured by one single measure.