본 연구는 사회자본이 지역사회참여(정치참여, 수평적 참여, 수직적 참여, 자원봉사참여)에 미치는 영향을 실증적으로 검증해보기 위한 목적으로 실시되었다. 이를 위해 사회자본을 규범, 신뢰, 네트워크를 독립변수로 하였으며, 각각의 변수들이 종속변수인 지역사회참여에 미치는 영향을 검증하였다. 자료수집의 총 500부의 설문지를 배부하여 회수된 설문지 중 불성실 응답자 등을 제외한 432부를 표본으로 선정하였으며 사회자본과 지역사회참여에 대한 인과관계 분석을 위한 상관관계 분석 및 회귀분석을 실시하였다. 회귀분석의 결과 사회자본의 네트워크와 정치참여(p<.000, 베타=.197), 그리고 규범(p<.028, 베타=.119)과 네트워크(p<.000, 베타=.206)변수는 수평적 지역사회참여에 통계적으로 유의미한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 수직적 지역사회참여에는 규범(p<.000, 베타=.204)과 네트워크(p<.000, 베타=.281)가 통계적으로 유의미한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으며, 자원봉사참여에는 세 변수 모두가 통계적 연계성이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 규범(p<.002, 베타=.159). 신뢰(p<.001, 베타=.169), 네트워크(p<.000, 베타=.225). 이는 사회자본의 신뢰가 높을수록 자원봉사 참여도가 높다는 것을 의미한다. 네트워크는 회귀계수 베타 값이 정(+)의 관계로 독립변수와 종속변수는 서로 비례적 관계에 있는 것으로 나타났다. 이와 같은 연구결과를 바탕으로 시민 개개인의 지역사회 참여에 대한 적극적인 태도의 의식 전환이 선행되는 것이 가장 중요하다고 할 수 있다.
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of social capital on community participation(political participation, horizontal participation, vertical participation and participation in volunteer work). Three selected factors of social capital that were norms, trust and network were selected as the independent variables, and how each of the variables affected community participation that was a dependent variable was investigated. The subjects in this study were 500 people who included employees and users of eight different social welfare centers and government workers in the city of Seoul. After a survey was conducted, the answer sheets from 432 respondents were selected except for the incomplete ones, and correlation analysis and regression analysis were carried out to analyze the causal relationship between social capital and community participation. As a result of making the regression analysis, network of social capital was found to have a statistically significant impact on political participation(p<.000, β=.197), and norms(p<.028, β=.119) and network(p<.000, β=.206) exerted a statistically significant influence on horizontal community participation. The vertical community participation was under the statistically significant influence of norms(p<.000, β=.204) and network(p<.000, β=.281), and volunteer-work participation had a statistical relationship to all the norms(p<.002, β=.159), trust(p<.001, β=.169) and network(p<.000, β=.225). It denoted that stronger trust in social capital led to better participation in volunteer work. The β value of the regression coefficient of network showed that it had a positive relationship to that, and the independent variables had a proportional relationship to the dependent variable. Given the findings of the study, it could be said that what matters the most is that individual citizens should change their mind-set and take a more active attitude to community participation. Even the best policy and a huge amount of budget don`t necessarily guarantee the success of the policy. The most crucial prerequisite for that is a change of mind-set on the side of people concerned. A local community belongs to the citizens who live in it. Every citizen is the owner of the community where he or she lives, and citizens should regard the development of their community as that of their own with a sense of sovereignty and participate in local affairs. That seems to be one of the surest ways to ensure the genuine development of the local community.