Why a high level of civic engagement can make you solitary

A high level of civic engagement in voluntary associations is believed to generally be positive. Civic involvement can create involved citizens, engender trust between them, help generate so-cial capital, help them to overcome collective dilemmas, and such activity can be closely linked with a happy and socially integrated population. This paper argues that the so-called spill-over effect, meaning that associational social capital produces positive outcomes for the community as a whole, is rather limited, especially in urban regions. Instead, high levels of civic engagement on the part of some persons can obstruct non-engaged citizens in gaining social capital. As more actors join voluntary associations, the pool of social resources available for non-engaged indi-viduals is diluted and bears the risk that inactive citizens could be excluded from communal life. Using survey data from the German National Volunteer Survey (Freiwilligensurvey1999-2014), I examine the link between regional civic engagement and individual social embeddedness as well as the support to be expected from people outside one’s own household. Findings reveal that civ-ic engagement rates on the macro level affect engaged and non-engaged persons differently. A pronounced culture of civic engagement increases the risk of social exclusion for the non-engaged in rural regions, but even more in urban region.