VILKEN ROLL SPELAR LOKALA FACEBOOKGRUPPER FÖR TILLIT?- En kvantitativ studie om lokala Facebookgrupper, etnisk mångfald och mellanmänsklig tillit

Abstract

In the discussion regarding the consequences of immigration there is a debate whether ethnic diversity undermines the social cohesion of a community and studies have shown that social trust erodes as ethnic diversity increases. The theories of contact and conflict have been applied to interpret the empirical evidence found. The dividing line seems to be whether social contact actually occurs in a setting in which people of different ethnic belonging lives. People having regular contact with their neighbors in neighborhoods characterized by ethnic diversity display higher social trust than people who don't have contact with their neighbors. New technologies pave the way for other forms of social contact and local Facebook groups are a phenomenon in this category. The purpose of this essay is to examine whether social contact via local Facebook groups can stimulate social trust in neighborhoods characterized by ethnic diversity. In order to investigate the role of local Facebookgroups for trust, I conduct an empirical analysis of surveydata from the SOM institute with a random selection of 3463 individuals living in Gothenburg. The main finding from the regression analysis is that people of foreign background who make use of local Facebook groups display higher social trust than people of foreign background not making use of local Facebookgroups when living in neighborhoods characterized by high ethnic diversity.