Social Involvement and Labor Market Participation as Individual Value Creation

Abstract

This chapter elaborates in more detail on the micro-sociological underpinnings of people’s involvement in different social domains and their social ties, groups, and activities. First, it provides explanations for why people generally engage in different social domains and specifically in the labor market, social-cultural activities, and social relationships. Second, it concentrates on the underlying mechanisms and, in particular, on the role of material, social, and cultural constraints and resources for people’s actions, including their participation in activities and groups. Hypotheses are then proposed about the effect of unemployment on social involvement.