Social Integration and Social Involvement from a Societal and Individual Perspective

Abstract

This chapter aims to incorporate people’s social activities as well as labor market participation into a wider macro-sociological perspective on social integration and social order. First, the relevance of social involvement for social integration and for social cohesion will be discussed. Then the focus will turn to different theories of social integration in order to clarify which domains of social participation have been considered to constitute and contribute to social integration. In particular, the significance of different systems such as economy, community, social networks, and culture for social integration is presented from different theoretical viewpoints. Because social change may have altered the foundations on which social integration occurs, the chapter also briefly addresses this strand of theoretical literature.