Social Capital or Sociality? Methodological Contrasts between Economics and Other Social Sciences

Author(s):  
Desmond McNeill
1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-26
Author(s):  
Henk Flap

A recent theoretical development within the social sciences has been the emergence of the social capital research program. This is a program on relational resources, their creation, use. and effects. It took shape first within sociology and anthropology, nowadays it is also growing in popularity within political sciences and economics.


2004 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Healy

Following work by James Coleman and Pierre Bourdieu in the 1980s, social scientists from different disciplinary backgrounds have engaged in a debate about the meaning and application of social capital. Questions arise about the coherence, novelty and analytical purchase of the term: there is a risk of overstretching the concept to include too much. Moreover, empirical measures and proxy variables are only very approximately matched to the underlying concept(s). Some applications of the concept lump together different strands of social behaviour and attitude and treats these as universally equivalent or ‘outside’ specific cultures, institutional settings, historical contexts and power structures. It is suggested that these problems cannot be entirely resolved and have parallel examples in all areas of empirical research in the social sciences. However, suggestions are made for greater trans-disciplinary research, dialogue and connection to policy and community practice in an Irish context. We can sum up our position as follows. Social capital has several adolescent characteristics: it is neither tidy nor mature; it can be abused, analytically and politically; its future is unpredictable; but it offers much promise.


Author(s):  
Ben Kei Daniel

Social capital is a complex multifaceted and litigious theory, discussed in the Social Sciences and the Humanities. It is a theory increasingly researchers questioned its scientific legitimacy and yet paradoxically many other researchers continuously use it as a conceptual and theoretical framework to explain the structural and functional operations of communities. This Chapter discusses work done on the theory. It covers some of the theoretical controversy with a goal of aligning its conceptualization and distinguishing it from other types of capitals. The Chapter is organized first the basic theoretical and conceptual foundations of social capital are described. The aim is to present the reader with a basic understanding of what constitutes social capital, by opening discussion about various forms of capital(s)—as discussed in the disciplines of Economics and Sociology. Second, the Chapter discusses the origin of the theory as well as the work of key scholars who have contributed to the development of the theory. Furthermore, in order to identify the strengths and the weaknesses of the theory, the Chapter provides the reader with analysis of benefits and shortcomings of social capital both as a theoretical and analytical tool for studying communities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saifuddin Yunus ◽  
Suadi Zainal ◽  
Fadli Jalil ◽  
Cut Maya Aprita Sari

Purpose of the study: This study tried to examine the correlation between social capital and the poverty level of farmers in Aceh. It was linked to the uneven agricultural development of some rural areas in Aceh had caused the poverty rates in villages are higher than in the urban areas. Hence the social capital is important as other capitals in development and become the energies for the development and decreases the rate of poverty. Methodology: This research used a quantitative method by distributing the questionnaire to 300 respondents in Aceh Tamiang, Pidie Jaya and Aceh Tengah, Indonesia. The data analyzed by using the Spearman correlation with the assistance of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences to determining the relationship between two variables; social capital and poverty in farmers. Main Findings: This study found that there is a positive and significant correlation between social capital and the level of poverty. Famers who have a higher stock of social capital are found to be lower in the poverty rate. Applications of this study: The finding of this study is useful for the government of the Aceh government to explore and strengthen farmers' social capital to empowering their economies. It would be relevant to decreasing the poverty rate according to farmers in Aceh. Novelty/Originality of this study: The case of poverty in Aceh was widely explained by the numbers of the researcher. But there is no recent publication that has explained the relationship between poverty and social capital in Aceh. Therefore a strong level of social capital will be able to significantly reduce poverty in Aceh.


Reputation ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 86-112
Author(s):  
Gloria Origgi

This chapter introduces a set of tools from the social sciences, including social capital theory, the theory of networks, and the sociology of hierarchies. It explains how the mechanisms designed to evaluate reputations function and what makes them reliable. It also focuses on the assessment and reliability of reputations. People emit signals meant to convince others of the genuineness of their reputations. Similarly, all things, objects, ideas, and indeed everything that points beyond appearances to hidden qualities, emit signals that inform people more or less credibly that certain qualities really exist. The chapter also explains that reputation is the result not only of strategic positioning but also of the way in which such positioning is perceived by others.


2012 ◽  
pp. 7-21
Author(s):  
Hans Westlund

In the last nineteen years we have witnessed an explosion of research on social capital in almost all the social sciences. The question addressed by this paper is the following one: what has been achieved during these years? The first part of the discussion is devoted to a review of the most influential definitions of social capital. The second point concerns the theoretical arguments on social capital's impact on regional development: how social capital affects production, incomes and other output that we normally consider to be development. Starting from these considerations, the main theoretical problems in literature will be pointed out. Finally, the last part of this work refers to the future for studies on social capital and local and regional development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22T (1 (tematyczny)) ◽  
pp. 30-36
Author(s):  
Kazimierz W. Frieske

The article consists of two parts. In the first part, the author returns to the classic text by C.P. Snow entitled Two Cultures 1959, and justifies its obsolescence by claiming that in recent decades, the natural sciences have become closer to the traditional humanities and have undergone a kind of 'philosophizing', while knowledge accumulated in the humanities and social sciences is increasingly organized by seeking answers to questions of a practical nature. The author's comment boils down to a statement that this is a very unfortunate course of events because, among other things, before we start answering questions about how to achieve these or other goals, it is good to know that it is worthwhile to achieve them. In short, it is not out of the question that the gradual elimination of classical questions about meanings and values from the humanities and social sciences contributes to highly ambivalent assessments of 'modernity'. In the second part, the author does not ask about the rationale behind the objection to various discriminatory practices, but he does ask how - within the framework of the "Potentials..." project - these mechanisms were tried to be dealt with, using the key elements of the so-called "behavioral economics", and he describes the experiences connected with it.


2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANN CRONIN ◽  
ANDREW KING

ABSTRACTThe concept of social capital is widely used in the social sciences and has, to an extent, been applied to the lives and social networks of older lesbian, gay and bisexual (hereafter LGB) adults. Developing existing research, this paper argues that while not without its problems, the concept of social capital enriches our understanding of these networks, whilst simultaneously deconstructing the negative stereotypes surrounding homosexuality in later life. However, little attention has been paid to the social factors that mediate access and participation in lesbian and gay communities and the implications of this on the quality and experience of later life. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in the United Kingdom, this paper illustrates how biography, gender and socio-economic status are significant mediators in the development and maintenance of social capital by older LGB adults. It concludes with a set of recommendations aimed at improving the social capital of older LGB adults, together with the importance of ‘queering’ the concept itself.


2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-461
Author(s):  
Jacek Tittenbrun

Its enormous popularity across the social sciences notwithstanding, the concept of social capital is seriously flawed. More specifically, it is a misnomer; it does not capture the entire extent of the social and has nothing to do with capital in the proper sense of the word.


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