Does ICT Use Enhance Social Capital? Some Evidence from A Survey in Twelve EU Regions

ICTs radically open up new ways in which to address the basic challenges of regional development in the knowledge-based society. The transformative potential of ICTs resides, in particular, in the way they enable networking, learning and innovation, and empowerment. A horizontal theme that runs through all of these is social capital. A growing body of evidence suggests not only that strong social capital contributes to diffusion of ICTs within a region, but also that uses of ICT help (re-)produce social capital stocks. This paper uses data from a 2008 Internet user survey in 12 European regions in order to gain insight into the relationship between Internet use and social capital. The results suggest that Internet use, far from endangering social capital, is strongly associated with high levels of sociability, social participation and trust. This applies, in particular, to uses of so-called participative web applications.