scholarly journals Civic Engagement as an Externality of Social Capital

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana A. Guzhavina

The concept of social capital that has become popular in the last decades has significant heuristic potential. It is developed through the broadening of the object of research. Today, the study of the externalities of social capital remains an under-investigated area. The use of social capital has a wide range of external effects. Most often, attention is paid to their occurrence in the economy. However, they are present in all spheres of social life and are significant there, too. Thus, in the sphere of political engagement, social effects may include various forms of civic engagement, which facilitate the functioning of civil society, and, in particular, the implementation of its function as a mechanism of feedback between the society and state. This article aims to demonstrate using empirical material the dependence of respondents’ civic engagement on their social capital. The empirical research base is represented by the results of public opinion polls of the population of Vologda Region, conducted in June 2016 by specialists of the Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences Federal Publicly Funded Institution of Science. During data analysis carried out on the basis of an indicator model of social capital measurement developed in the course of the Regional Social Capital in Crisis Conditions project, groups of social capital bearers different in accumulation level were identified. Data were analyzed with the use of the SPSS package. The research discovered that the civic activity demonstrated by respondents depends on their belonging to a group with accumulated social capital. Persons with social capital of higher level were to a much greater extent involved in various forms of civic engagement.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 5583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Pawlewicz ◽  
Adam Pawlewicz

The relationship between social capital and sustainable development challenges is of special importance. However, social capital is a complex phenomenon that is analyzed in different contexts and cannot be investigated with the use of a single variable. Social capital is difficult to define, which is why the selection of variables for measuring social capital can be problematic. The aim of this study was to analyze variations in social capital at the regional level. The study was conducted in Poland, and it covered all 16 Polish voivodeships (regions) where social capital was evaluated based on five measures: civic engagement in political and social life, degree of selfless behavior, sense of security and social confidence, formation of social structures, and the observance of social norms (external factors), and attitudes (internal factors) that foster desirable social interactions. The correlations between the above measures were also determined. Composite indicators of the analyzed measures were developed with the use of the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. The results were used to rank Polish voivodeships and group them into three classes based on the corresponding values of the adopted measures. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used in the correlation analysis. The analysis involved a total of 26 indicators based on the data provided by Statistics Poland, the National Election Committee, Social Diagnosis project, and Moja Polis website. Polish voivodeships not only differ considerably in terms of the evaluated measures of social capital, but are also characterized by significant internal variation within each measure. The majority of Polish voivodeships were grouped in class II denoting average values of the evaluated measures, which could suggest that Poland is deficient in social capital. The Pomeranian voivodeship scored highest and the Łódź voivodeship scored lowest in the analyzed measures of social capital. A significant correlation was observed only between civic engagement in political and social life versus the formation of social structures and the observance of norms and attitudes that foster desirable social interactions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggie Anderson ◽  
Laura Galloway

The focus of this paper is on the role of enterprise training among disabled people. The authors first review the literature, in particular comparing work on the theoretical benefits of enterprise training provision for disabled people with empirical studies of enterprise training initiatives for disabled people in various countries. In the analysis, low social capital is implicated as a cause of much disadvantage in economic and social life among disabled people, and this is particularly pertinent in modern knowledge-based economies where responsibility for development in the lifelong learning agenda is devolved from governments to individuals, including disabled individuals. Following this, an investigation of one publicly funded initiative in Fife, Scotland, is conducted and this is used to inform a wider debate about the potential uses and value of enterprise training for disabled people in the current stratified socioeconomic milieu. The paper argues that there is potential for enterprise training to contribute on a wider basis than simply independent entrepreneurship promotion and that the research community therefore has an opportunity to engage with this broader agenda.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 295-297
Author(s):  
Sergej A. Borisov

For more than twenty years, the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences celebrates the Day of Slavic Writing and Culture with a traditional scholarly conference.”. Since 2014, it has been held in the young scholars’ format. In 2019, participants from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Togliatti, Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, and Rostov-on-Don, as well as Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania continued this tradition. A wide range of problems related to the history of the Slavic peoples from the Middle Ages to the present time in the national, regional and international context were discussed again. Participants talked about the typology of Slavic languages and dialects, linguo-geography, socio- and ethnolinguistics, analyzed formation, development, current state, and prospects of Slavic literatures, etc.


Author(s):  
Andrew Hadfield

Lying in Early Modern English Culture is a major study of ideas of truth and falsehood from the advent of the Reformation to the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot. The period is characterized by panic and chaos when few had any idea how religious, cultural, and social life would develop after the traumatic division of Christendom. Many saw the need for a secular power to define the truth; others declared that their allegiances belonged elsewhere. Accordingly there was a constant battle between competing authorities for the right to declare what was the truth and so label opponents as liars. Issues of truth and lying were, therefore, a constant feature of everyday life, determining ideas of identity, politics, speech, sex, marriage, and social behaviour, as well as philosophy and religion. This book is a cultural history of truth and lying from the 1530s to the 1610s, showing how lying needs to be understood in practice and theory, concentrating on a series of particular events, which are read in terms of academic debates and more popular notions of lying. The book covers a wide range of material such as the trials of Anne Boleyn and Thomas More, the divorce of Frances Howard, and the murder of Anthony James by Annis and George Dell; works of literature such as Othello, The Faerie Queene, A Mirror for Magistrates, and The Unfortunate Traveller; works of popular culture such as the herring pamphlet of 1597; and major writings by Castiglione, Montaigne, Erasmus, Luther, and Tyndale.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Uwe Gieler

<b>Background</b>: Hidradenitis suppurativa is a debilitating disease related to a great psychosocial burden in affected patients and subsequently also people around them. Patients’ partners as caregivers may indirectly experience wide range of devastating effects of the disease on their emotional and social life. <b>Objective:</b> The purpose of this study was to determine the QoL impairment in HS patients’ partners and to identify its aspects that are affected the most. Correlation between QoL burden and disease severity, duration, sex, age and smoking was also assessed. <b>Methods:</b> A total of 50 HS sufferers were assessed according to disease severity and their partners’ QoL was determined using the Family Dermatology Life Quality Index questionnaire. <b>Results:</b> The mean FDLQI for patients’ partners was 8.7 ± 6.8 points, indicating generally a moderate effect of HS on their life. Quality of partners’ life correlated significantly with disease severity but no correlation was found according to other factors. <b>Conclusion:</b> Hidradenitis suppurativa is a highly psychologically devastating disease not only for patients but also for their partners. It occurred to diminish partners’ QoL mostly by increasing daily expenditure but also other problems were often reported. Clinicians should be aware of these psychosocial implications, in order to provide optimal therapy of HS affected families by a multidisciplinary specialized management addressing both, patients and their cohabitants simultaneously.


2001 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashutosh Varshney

Scholars have worked either on civil society or on ethnic conflict, but no systematic attempt has yet been made to connect the two. In an attempt to explore the possible links, this article makes two interconnected arguments. First, interethnic and intraethnic networks of civic engagement play very different roles in ethnic conflict. Because they build bridges and manage tensions, interethnic networks are agents of peace. But if communities are organized only along intraethnic lines and the interconnections with other communities are very weak (or do not exist), ethnic violence is then quite likely. Second, civic networks, both intra- and interethnic, can also be broken down into two other types: associational forms of engagement and everyday forms of engagement. This distinction is based on whether civic interaction is formal or not. Both forms of engagement, if robust, promote peace: contrariwise, their absence or weakness opens up space for ethnic violence. Of the two, however, the associational forms turn out to be sturdier than everyday engagement, especially when confronted with attempts by politicians to polarize the people along ethnic lines. Both arguments have significance for theories of ethnic conflict and social capital.


Author(s):  
Inta Klāsone ◽  
Solvita Spirģe-Sēne

Nowadays, various forms of visual art have brought closer people’s daily lives to the processes that occur in the society. At the same time, the visually fulfilled environment has created favourable conditions for misunderstanding the contexts and meanings of artworks. This article draws attention to the fact that dialogue with visual art can be an important tool for developing personal values and promoting the spiritual understanding of a cultural environment. The topicality of the issue is supported by the educational trends of the 21st century – to educate comprehensive people who are capable of doing a wide range of tasks, constantly continuing their learning and development. Art plays an initiator’s role in social life and it encompasses all spiritual realms of humanity, which cannot be accomplished by other forms of public consciousness. A work of art can be viewed as a multi-layered expression of thoughts in an artistic form of images and symbols. The artist's work means producing a coded text or message. This article includes insights of scholars and artists developing an understanding of the artist’s work and artworks in a cultural and historical context to enrich the individual's competence base, and examples of the work and beliefs of particular artists of the 21st century.


2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 184-196
Author(s):  
Maja Dorota Wojciechowska

PurposeSocial capital, understood as intangible community values available through a network of connections, is a factor in the development of societies and improving quality of life. It helps to remove economic inequalities and prevent poverty and social exclusion, stimulate social and regional development, civic attitudes and social engagement and build a civic society as well as local and regional identity. Many of these tasks may be implemented by libraries, which, apart from providing access to information, may also offer a number of services associated with social needs. The purpose of this paper is to present the roles and functions that libraries may serve in local communities in terms of assistance, integration and development based on classical social capital theories.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews the classical concepts of social capital in the context of libraries. It analyses the findings of Pierre-Félix Bourdieu, James Coleman, Francis Fukuyama, Robert Putnam, Nan Lin, Ronald Stuart Burt, Wayne Baker and Alejandro Portes. Based on their respective concepts, the paper analyses the role of the contemporary library in the social life of local communities. In particular, it focuses on the possible new functions that public libraries may serve.FindingsA critical review of the concept of social capital revealed certain dependencies between libraries and their neighbourhoods. With new services that respond to the actual social needs, libraries may serve as a keystone, namely they may integrate, animate and engage local communities. This, however, requires a certain approach to be adopted by the personnel and governing authorities as well as infrastructure and tangible resources.Originality/valueThe social engagement of libraries is usually described from the practical perspective (reports on the services provided) or in the context of research on the impact of respective projects on specific groups of users (research reports). A broader approach, based on original social theories, is rarely encountered. The paper draws on classical concepts of social capital and is a contribution to the discussion on possible uses of those concepts based on an analysis of the role of libraries in social life and in strengthening the social capital of local communities.


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