Can Putnam's theory explain high levels of social trust?

Abstract

The Nordic countries hold the highest social trust scores in the world with averages up to 76%. There are, however, regional differences. When measuring the level of social trust in a rural area such as Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality (RSM), located in peripheral Denmark, the result is an astonishing score of 91%. How can we explain why the RSM achieves such a high social trust score? One first answer could be based on Robert Putnam’s theory on voluntary organizations. In fact, logistic regressions with predicted probabilities show that voluntary work has a strong positive effect on a citizen’s social trust. This result is useful for geography as it shows that peripheral rural areas may perform extremely well in terms of social trust which again could be used by them as a new and overlooked brand for attracting newcomers.