Abstract of paper, 23^rd Nordic Sociological Conference, Turkku, Finland, 18-20 August 2006.

Social integration in late modern society. The case of Norway 1973-2002.

Social disintegration, “the loss of community”, has historically been a major sociological concern. The theme of social disintegration has continued as part of social science discussions up to the present. An updated and influential version of the “community lost”-hypothesis is Robert Putnam's contention that “social capital” is declining. In this paper, the "decline"-thesis is assessed on the basis of Norwegian surveys of level of living and time use, covering three decades.

The pessimistic descriptions given by Putnam and others receive limited support. During the last 30 years, there has been no general decline in face-to-face interaction. The case is rather the opposite concerning the number of people who have a confiding relationship outside of family circles. Time used on conversations (including telephone conversations) has increased. These findings are in accordance with other research claiming that increasing individualisation is not necessarily detrimental to communal relations, family care and quality of life in general. That confiding friendships have become more widespread is consistent with Hage and Power's prediction that post-industrial society will be conducive to more intimate social relations. Friendship as a social relation is in many ways prototypical for relations in late modern society. Friendships are typically chosen (you do not choose most of your relatives), informal (there are no explicit, formal rules governing friendships, in contrast to family relations) and egalitarian.

A number of important qualifications must be made, however. Household integration is obviously loosening, as more and more people are singles living alone. Another qualification is developments in the 90's, which in some ways contrast with developments in the preceding decades.