You Can’t Shoot Everyone

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Corsino
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Market Opportunity ◽  
Social Closure ◽  
Select Group ◽  
The Social ◽  
Illegal Activities ◽  
Willingness To Use

This chapter turns more directly toward organized crime. It identifies the Chicago Heights boys and the mix of social capital processes, specifically the social closure and brokerage opportunities, that allowed this segment of the Chicago Outfit a near half century run as a highly profitable, successful criminal operation. Illegal activities associated with organized crime provided an avenue for social mobility. While these illegal operations existed from the beginning of Chicago Heights' incorporation as a city in the early 1900s, the 1920s saw a dramatic increase in the size and scope of these operations as Prohibition created a tremendous black market opportunity for illegal liquor. Exhibiting a strong entrepreneurial sense and a willingness to use violence to accomplish their goals, a select group of Italian residents in Chicago Heights allied themselves with Al Capone to gain control of the illegal liquor, gambling, and prostitution trades in the Heights.

‘Social Change, Friendship and Civic Participation’

2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 111-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaojun Li ◽  
Mike Savage ◽  
Andrew Pickles
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
British Household Panel Survey ◽  
Panel Survey ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
The Social

This paper studies the changing distribution of social capital and its impact on class formation in England and Wales from a ‘class structural’ perspective. It compares data from the Social Mobility Inquiry (1972) and the British Household Panel Survey (1992 and 1998) to show a distinct change in the class profiling of membership in civic organisations, with traditionally working-class dominated associations losing their working-class character, and middle-class dominated associations becoming even more middle-class dominated. Similar changes are evident for class-differentiated patterns of friendship. Our study indicates the class polarization of social capital in England and Wales.

Community Transformation and the Formation of Ethnic Capital: Immigrant Chinese Communities in the United States

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingang Lin ◽  
Min Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
New York ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigrant Communities ◽  
Community Transformation ◽  
Ethnic Capital ◽  
The Social ◽  
Enclave Economy

AbstractIn this article, we attempt to develop a conceptual framework of “ethnic capital” in order to examine the dynamics of immigrant communities. Building on the theories of social capital and the enclave economy, we argue that ethnic capital is not a thing but involves interactive processes of ethnic-specific financial capital, human capital, and social capital. We use case studies of century-old Chinatowns and emerging middle-class immigrant Chinese communities in New York and Los Angeles to illustrate how ethnic capital affects community building and transformation, which in turn influence the social mobility of immigrants. We also discuss how developments in contemporary ethnic enclaves challenge the conventional notion of assimilation and contribute to our understanding of immigrant social mobility.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Corsino
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Contemporary Context

This concluding chapter presents a more general discussion of the interrelationships between ethnicity, organized crime, and social capital, especially as it may apply to the contemporary context in Chicago Heights. This study connected the decades-long ‘success’ of the organized crime operation in Chicago Heights to the persistent balancing act between the resources of closure, violence, and brokerage. Too much or too little of one or another would be potentially damaging to this long-term success. Closure brings value to the organization because it promotes a familiarity and assumed level of trust between individuals. However, when there are strong ties binding groups together, certainty and predictability triumph over variability and innovation. Individuals are unaware of or reluctant to think through or even see new opportunities because the social networks place a premium on routine beliefs and behaviors. An antidote to the excesses of closure is violence. New ideas and new approaches were pushed forward by force and the elimination of opposition. Today, although Italian organized crime presence in Chicago Heights has significantly diminished, organized crime in Chicago Heights persists. African Americans and Latinos have largely taken over the vice operations.

The Social Opportunity Gap

Making Change ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 78-84
Author(s):  
Tina P. Kruse
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Central American ◽  
Youth Of Color ◽  
Opportunity Gap ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
The Social ◽  
Upward Social Mobility

This chapter reviews principles and examples of social capital, as well as linking the theory into the model of youth social entrepreneurship. Like other forms of capital, an unequal distribution of social capital is associated with other gaps and with reduced chances for change in the future. In fact, social capital is tied closely to social mobility, the central American belief that one’s birth status is not a predetermination of wealth. Not only is there a yawning gap in the social capital of youth from high-income versus low-income households in America, but low-income youth of color also are disproportionately less likely to be able to participate in upward social mobility. This chapter connects social capital, collective hope, and youth social entrepreneurship.

Did They Jump?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Corsino
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Labor Organizing ◽  
Ethnic Entrepreneurship ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City ◽  
Italian Community

For the greater part of the last century, Chicago Heights Italians found themselves on the wrong end of the cultural, political, and economic hierarchy in the city. This position made it extremely difficult for Italians to make recognizable gains in social mobility for themselves or their families. This chapter examines the collective mobilization strategies—labor organizing, mutual-aid societies, and ethnic entrepreneurship—that Chicago Heights Italians pursued in response to the diminished opportunities for mobility. Each collective mobilization was fueled by the social capital in the community. Each generated success stories. But each also came up against obstacles that limited their appeal in the Italian community.

Socio-cultural Resource for Kazakhstan Modernization

2012 ◽  
pp. 74-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Stavinskaya ◽  
E. Nikishina
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Competitive Advantages ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Cultural Resource ◽  
Bonding Social Capital ◽  
Social And Cultural Capital ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
Cultural Features

The opportunities of the competitive advantages use of the social and cultural capital for pro-modernization institutional reforms in Kazakhstan are considered in the article. Based on a number of sociological surveys national-specific features of the cultural capital are marked, which can encourage the country's social and economic development: bonding social capital, propensity for taking executive positions (not ordinary), mobility and adaptability (characteristic for nomad cultures), high value of education. The analysis shows the resources of the productive use of these socio-cultural features.

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