scholarly journals Middle class in the reproduction of social capital

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (52) ◽  
pp. 276-294
Author(s):  
Liudmyla Yelisieieva

In the article, the role of the middle class in the reproduction of social capital is investigated. For this aim, the dynamics, structure, values, and economic interests of the middle class in Ukraine and its influence on the formation of social capital are characterized. It has been found that the development of social capital depends on a number of institutional conditions and economic factors, one of which is the size and dynamics of the middle class. Based on different criteria, the number of middle class in Ukraine is defined. The specificity of the middle class formation in Ukraine has been clarified. The relationship between the dynamics of income and the size of the middle class has been identified. The structure of the middle class in Ukraine and its readiness for economic change and social transformation are specified. The common interests of the middle class with other strata are identified, which gives grounds for defining the status of the middle class and its ability to perform a communicative function and a special role in the development of civil society and open social capital. Generally speaking, the middle class is the nucleus of social capital. The factors of accumulation and destruction of social capital in Ukraine are revealed. The negative impact of the increasing inequality in income distribution, the spread of poverty and the increase in the share of the unemployed on the formation of the middle class and, accordingly, social capital, are investigated. There is a correlation between the uneven distribution of income, institutional confidence and the work of social elevators. The role of the middle class in building the bridging and strengthening the bonding social capital is specified. The participation of middle class representatives in the formation of economic inquiries and the development of volunteer communities was clarified. Generally, the role of the middle class in the reproduction of social capital is linked to ensuring the development of civil society and economic democratization.

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 61-75
Author(s):  
Lars Hulgård

Lars Hulgård: Civil Society or Social Capital? An institutional critique of theories of civil society inspired by Habermas and Putnam. There have been two main approaches to theory about the relations between civil society and democracy and the welfare state. One is the approach by Habermas that emphasizes the role of the public sphere as mediator between civil society and representative democracy. The other is an approach inspired by Putnam that emphasizes the importance of social capital. Putnam focuses on how civil involvement and voluntary associations raise the effectiveness of institutions in modern society. Both approaches have met with considerable criticism from different points of view. However the article argues that a similar criticism can be made of both approaches although they seem so different. It argues that the crucial challenge is to include an institutional perspective in whichever perspective one employs in the study the status of civil society as a democratic or welfare impulse in modern society. The article reviews the various criticisms of the two approaches and shows how an institutional perspective can be employed to both approaches.


Adam alemi ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
A. Bizhanov ◽  
◽  
A. Amrebayev ◽  

The article is devoted to the study of the role of the factor of Kazakh ethnicity in the process of nation-building in Kazakhstan. In the opinion of the authors of the article, the Kazakh cultural beginning is the system-forming and founding nation, the beginning. The birth of statehood itself on the territory of modern Kazakhstan is associated with the ethnic and cultural genesis of the Kazakhs. At the same time, in the period of modern times, Kazakhstan was also formed as a multicultural community of peoples. The acquisition of modern independence by the republic in 1991 is associated with national, and, above all, Kazakh, revival, restoration of the Kazakh cultural origin as a system-forming nation. The authors focus on these processes not only of the cultural revival of the Kazakh people, but also of its dominance in all other spheres of life, for example, such as political-ideological and socio-economic. This objective process is reflected in the institutional and structuralfunctional aspects of nation-building, strengthening the role and significance of the Kazakh language as the state language in the country, modern demographic trends, the formation of Kazakh civil political culture and, in fact, the model of the formation of national identity. Scientists pay attention to the peculiarities of the Kazakh model of multiculturalism, the basic values of modern Kazakh society, in which such principles as common interests, social stability, tolerance, loyalty of society to the institutions of power, the culture of cooperation and social comunitarism have taken root. The authors come to the conclusion that the Kazakh model of social project, which is based on the Kazakh social partnership, is the guarantor of sustainable and progressive social development. Attempts to disavow or belittle the value of Kazakh identity or replace it with any other artificial formats under the influence of external factors can have the most negative impact on social stability and constructive, progressive social development. According to scientists, further social transformation is associated, first of all, with the strengthening, modern content, expansion and rooting of the Kazakh cultural origin in the process of nation-building in the Republic of Kazakhstan.


2021 ◽  

On the 30th anniversary of the dissolution of the USSR, this book collects selected contributions which analyse patterns of stability and transformation that characterise the politics and societies of three Central Asian countries—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan—along with those of Central Asia as a region. In particular, this edited volume investigates gender equality discourses in Uzbekistan, the electoral rights of people with disabilities in Kyrgyzstan, neo-realism in the regional context of Central Asia, the role of Islam in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan as a provider of international security as well as the EU’s support of civil society and social capital in Kazakhstan. With contributions by Nora Becker, Dr. Shalva Dzebisashvili, Aziz Elmuradov, Prof. Dr. Matthias Kortmann, Dr. Aliia Maralbaeva, Laura Karoline Nette, Dr. Chiara Pierobon and Dr. Steve Schlegel.


Author(s):  
Jim Segers

This chapter looks at social transformation through the lens of ‘tough issues’. The perspective makes the vast challenges communities are faced with more practical, which in turns allows for progress in the right direction through small wins. Many citizen and community organisations with a background in environmental, peace and third world movements have roots in direct action. Over recent decades, they have been moving from opposing developments to proposing alternatives. We use the words of de Certeau (1984) to describe it as a shift from ‘résistance’ to ‘bricolage’. This shift has brought them closer to more institutionalised partners like government, business, civil society and research institutions. While this rapprochement has proven beneficial to each party involved – research methodologies such as Co-Creation prove that notions like horizontal decision-making, anti-authoritarianism and self-organisation are no longer the preoccupation of informal actors solely – the different stakeholders have not become interchangeable. The chapter argues for the role of a third actor in a social transformation process. This actor is not a stakeholder itself, but through a creative process (“prototyping” in the case of City Mine(d), arts creation in others) becomes tactically linked to the important stakeholders.


Author(s):  
Ariane J. Utomo

Across developing countries, the role of social networks and social capital in facilitating women's access to income is well documented. However, less is known about how networks facilitated by social networking sites (SNS) may transform women's economic opportunities in these regions. In this chapter, I draw upon a relatively recent phenomenon of the use of SNS as a medium of trade in urban Indonesia. In 2010, I conducted preliminary interviews to examine the dynamics of Facebook-facilitated trade among urban middle-class married women residing in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The interviews highlighted beneficial links between social media, social capital, and productivity – by means of increased personal income. However, this effective link between SNS and income-generating social capital is likely to be a rather distinctive example, as it depends largely on the class, gender, and cultural specificities that shape the nature of online and offline social interactions among my target group.


Author(s):  
Natalia Letki

This chapter examines the role of civil society and social capital in democratization processes. It begins by reconstructing the definitions of civil society and social capital in the context of political change, followed by an analysis of the ways in which civil society and social capital are functional for the initiation and consolidation of democracies. It then considers the relationship between civil society and attitudes of trust and reciprocity, the function of networks and associations in democratization, paradoxes of civil society and social capital in new democracies, and main arguments cast against the idea that civic activism and attitudes are a necessary precondition for a modern democracy. The chapter argues that civil society and social capital and their relation to political and economic institutions are context specific.


Urban Studies ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (16) ◽  
pp. 3738-3754 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Bishop

This article offers an explanation for the wide spatial variations in choice of insolvency route by personal debtors across local authorities in England and Wales. It is argued that formal bankruptcy has a more negative impact on social capital through stigma effects than the alternative of Individual Voluntary Arrangements. Consequently, spatial variations in choices are related to variations in social capital. The hypotheses derived from this approach are tested through the use of spatial econometric models utilising data from England and Wales. The results provide support for a positive link between variables related to social capital (age, mobility and home ownership) and choice of IVAs. It is argued that avoidance of stigma costs provides an explanation for the apparent paradox of the significant growth of IVAs despite their high cost to debtors compared to bankruptcy. Whilst there is only limited support for impacts directly related to the urban-rural environment, significant spatial interdependencies in choices across neighbouring areas are also uncovered.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-147
Author(s):  
Mousumi Singha Mahapatra ◽  
Swati Alok ◽  
Jayasree Raveendran

A person’s capability to manage financial matters has become important in today’s world. Availability of different types of sophisticated financial products coupled with the complexity and increased uncertainty of the economy and financial markets have generated a strong move to measure and study financial literacy among investors. The present article aims to analyze the status of financial literacy of college students with three identified antecedents, namely, socio-demographic characteristics, parental influence and attitude towards financial planning. A sample of 425 students from various colleges of the Hyderabad–Secunderabad region was studied to understand the role of the identified antecedents on financial literacy. The results of logistic regression analysis support the hypothesis that financial literacy of Indian college students is influenced by their socio-demographic characters, parental influence and their attitude towards financial planning. While both socio-demographic and parental influences have a positive impact on financial literacy, attitude towards financial planning is observed to have a negative impact.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-202
Author(s):  
M. M. Nurtazin

In the process of researching the geopolitical transformation of the post-Soviet space as a «Eurasian project», the author uses the method of comparative analysis of the official foreign policy documents of the founding States of the Eurasian economic union. The author, highlighting Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus as subjects of the «integration core» in the post-Soviet space, reinforces the integration aspirations of these countries with economic data indicating their growing interdependence during the decade preceding the creation of the Union in may 2014.It is shown that the sanctions regime imposed by the Western countries on Russia and their negative impact on the economy of the EEU did not reduce the political will of the leaders of the «Troika» to continue further integration.A detailed research of the policy statements (publications) of the political leaders of the EEU «integration core» allows to determine the special role of Kazakhstan and its President N. Nazarbayev in the implementation of this large-scale geopolitical project.The author in considering programmatic foreign policy documents of Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia offers to focus attention on the peculiarities of the positioning of the Eurasian economic union as integration entity. As a result, according to the author, the membership of Belarus in the «Eurasian project» was the result of a hard compromise for the Belarusian people. The Russian example shows that Moscow’s foreign policy vector was initially perceived by the EEU as a global project connecting Europe with the Asia-Pacific region. Now, however, Russia has positioned the EEU as a regional site. The author regards this as a decrease in the status of Eurasian integration and believes that this thesis looks very controversial. Kazakhstan, in turn, sees the «Eurasian project» as an opportunity to join the global economic chains. Thus, Astana attaches to the EEU exclusively global significance.The position of the Kazakh leader in the course of meetings with Western leaders is emphasized. The leader of Kazakhstan traditionally positions the EEU as an adequate and successful economic integration entity with which it is necessary to establish cooperation in all spheres. This allows him to be assigned the status of «advocate» of the «Eurasian project». At the same time, the article notes the support of the Eurasian views of N. Nazarbayev on the ideas of classical Eurasians P. Savitsky, G. Florovsky, N. Trubetskoy, G. Vernadsky, S. Solovyov, L. Gumilev.It is concluded that in the conditions of the remaining anti-Russian sanctions regime Kazakhstan’s participation in the EEU is one of the main factors of the legitimization of integration education at the regional and global levels. 


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