ECONOMICS:The census provides the most complete available portrait of the way we live now. Buried in the latest published volume of the 2006 census is a quite astonishing finding: Ireland's civic virtue remains intact despite the prolonged economic boom and the market-led values that have fostered it.

Despite the popular characterisation of Ireland as a country in a hurry - working harder, income-rich and time-poor, condemned to live in soulless suburbs and commuting longer through gridlocked traffic - there is still a very high level of voluntary engagement in charitable, social and community activities.

The principal socio-economic results of the 2006 census showed that more than half a million people - one in six of the population aged 15 years and over - participated in some form of voluntary activity in the four weeks before the census was taken.

Many were serial volunteers, participating in more than one community-based activity. Men and women were involved equally in volunteering. Most volunteers are middle-aged and middle-class. One-quarter were in their 40s.

One in four professionals participated in some form of voluntary activity, while the lowest volunteering rate was among unskilled workers, where just one in 10 participated.

So, Ireland has a relatively high level of civic engagement. Since the census asked this question for the first time in 2006, it is not possible to assess changes in the extent of volunteering over time. Nonetheless, the extent of voluntary activity appears high given the competing demands on people's time. Moreover, the commitment to shared community values implicit in volunteering appears to go against the ideological grain of recent decades, which has placed individualism centre stage. How can these apparent contradictions be explained?

In the first place, many of the perceived barriers to community activism may not be as formidable as was previously believed. Certainly, a higher proportion of the adult population is working, with the rise in participation rates particularly pronounced among married women, but there is little evidence that the average working week has lengthened.

According to quarterly National Household Surveys, between 1997 and 2007 the length of the average working week shortened from 43.2 to 40.5 hours for men and from 33.0 to 31.5 hours for women. Moreover, average commuting times to work - less than half an hour - and average commuting distances - 15.8km (9.8 miles) - remained broadly unchanged between the censuses of 2002 and 2006.

Nor has the flight to the suburbs induced isolation or severed social relations. A recent study of four suburban developments at Leixlip, Lucan, Mullingar and Ratoath found: "People still saw the suburbs as good places to raise children. They derived sustenance from close relations with others, particularly those who were at similar stages of family formation. Finally, our research suggests modest but not negligible levels of social and civic participation. In all these respects, local residents are socially embedded in their respective localities. Such a conclusion goes against the dominant perception of suburbs."*

The relative success of the new suburbs represents a triumph of community will over the forces of unregulated development, poor local amenities, inadequate schools and insufficient physical infrastructure. Fledgling communities have succeeded in spite of government - local and national - rather than because of it.

Thus, the strains of modern life may not have dissipated social capital to the extent previously believed.

Additionally, community activism may have been spurred by the striking growth of the Irish middle class, as the middle classes are avid volunteers.

The widening of this class may be the lasting legacy of the prolonged economic boom. Social classes are defined by the Central Statistics Office on an occupational basis. One in three of the population is now a member of the professional and managerial classes, compared with one in four two decades ago. In contrast, just 4 per cent of the population now comes from unskilled backgrounds, compared with 10 per cent in 1986.

The apparent contradiction between community values and individualism is easier to resolve. For a start, the moral basis of economic individualism is not wholly self-centred, but allows also for empathy. As the apostle of self-interest, Adam Smith, wrote in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759): "How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him."

Unlike Margaret Thatcher, Smith believed there was such a thing as society.

Second, a sufficient stock of social capital - of which volunteering is an integral part - is a necessary condition for the proper functioning of a market economy. Social capital can be seen as the sum of the networks of connections that bind together individuals within a society. Where these networks are dense and developed, where people recognise their dependence on one another, social relations will be marked by high levels of trust and a strong sense of mutual obligation.

Market economies cannot exist is a social vacuum; exchange is a social act essentially grounded on trust that parties to a bargain will honour their promises.

Third, it is important not to become too dewy-eyed about social capital. Much of the individual investment in social capital is dictated by self-interest. Networking and "schmoozing" are components of the stock of social capital.

However, even where informed by self-interest, social engagement can ultimately generate positive "neighbourhood" effects for the community as a whole. Thus, while volunteering to campaign for a new school in the locality or to referee a match may be influenced by the fact that young Seán has no school place and wants to play football, the benefits of parental action spill over into the whole community.

In this sphere, social capital, like the market itself, is guided by the private passions of individuals to produce socially useful outcomes.

* "Ties that Bind? The Social Fabric of Daily Life in New Suburbs", Mary Corcoran, Jane Gray and Michel Peillon, in Best of Times? The Social Impact of the Celtic Tiger, IPA, 2007.