Trust as an element of social capital – Evidence from a survey of Polish and Spanish students

Abstract

The main aim of the paper is to describe personal, public and occupation-related trust of Polish students. This aim is reflected in the paper’s structure. The theoretical part explores key issues related to social capital and to trust as its crucial component. The empirical part offers an analysis of a survey conducted among Polish students and, additionally, for the purpose of comparison, also among their peers from Spain. Several key conclusions are formulated in the final section of the paper. They refer in particular to the differences in the areas of personal, public and occupation-related trust between the two analysed groups of students.