A Social Capital Perspective on Social-Medical Collaboration in Community End-of-Life Care in Hong Kong

Recent developments in Hong Kong end-of-life (EOL) care have shifted some caring work for dying people and their families to cross-disciplinary collaboration in community settings. Social-medical collaboration becomes especially important. This study aims to use social capital as an analytical lens to examine the processes and mechanisms of social-medical collaboration in EOL care and elucidate practice implications for engaging in the care of dying people and their families. Qualitative data were collected using in-depth interviews. Three major conceptual categories were generated through grounded theory methodology. They are (a) establishing trust through keeping clear and simple boundaries, (b) cultivating mutuality in the multi-disciplinary meeting, and (c) fostering social-medical collaboration in EOL care. Each new stage is based on the social capital accumulated in the previous one through the social interactions between professionals. Such theorization also provides insights into how to achieve effective social-medical collaboration in this context.

Considering the Contradictions of Religion and Orthodox Christianity as concomitantly endorsing strife and accord – a Social Capital Perspective

This paper contributes to the existing literature by providing an discussion and a critique of the discourse of social capital as it relates to Christianity and in particular to an Orthodox stance. Religion is acknowledged as responsible for promoting factions in the world, as well as for the strife amongst the various religious groups. The New Testament is studied with the constituents of social capital – networks (groups), norms and trust – as a foundation for evaluating the ministries and teaching of Christianity with regards to the role thereof in promoting strife and unity and ultimately harmony amongst people. The ministry of Jesus Christ was distinctly opposed to the prevailing social capital in the then Jewish territories, as is the case in the epistles when speaking to the non-Jewish parishes. The prevailing normative principles were frequently censured, and the confrontational manner in which the established social groups were related to, aggravated by the entirely inclusive but absolutely exclusive standpoint, is deemed inexcusable and resulted in the execution of Christ and a number of his apostles and other followers. The threat to the trust amongst the Jewish citizens and also between the general population groups and religious leaders proved to be a major driving force in ongoing persecutions. Unity amongst the early Christians proved elusive and the absence of heterogeneity as a requirement for socially cohesive networks and groups served to explain this challenge. Diversity of ethnicity, language and culture impeded the spontaneous social associations. The epistles provide us with a rich account of the significance of diversity and the constant efforts towards unity and societal harmony. This is in concord with the Orthodox faith which is strongly in favour of acceptance of diversity and love for others. Social capital is an stimulating idea that has since biblical days become a focus for community advancement initiatives. The social capital perspective of the New Testament easily transcends into our reality of today and supports the relevance of Christian principles two thousand years later.

Social Capital and Running: A Network Social Capital Perspective

This study examines the measurement of position generators as a proxy of network social capital (NSC) and its influence on the extensity and upper reachability of social capital and sport/running participation. An analysis of 373 runners shows that running exercise participants rely on diverse relations to access and increase their social capital levels; stronger ties with the accessed occupations via running activities can help reach people with higher occupational prestige; access to more intermediate class occupations is significantly positively associated with upper reachability, whereas access to more working class occupations is significantly negatively associated with upper reachability; those who are older and have strong ties with people in accessed occupations known via running activities have higher levels of sport/running participation. We provide evidence for the application of NSC theory in sport to better understand how social networks operate by accessing extensity and upper reachability of social capital and how NSC influences sport (running) participation.

Institutional and Educational Transformation of Pesantren in Social Capital Perspective: A Phenomenological Study at Pesantren of Miftahul Ulum, Suren, Jember

<p>This research focused on the development of <em>pesantren</em>, especially in the institutional and educational aspects using a social capital perspective. The <em>pesantren</em> used as a research site is <em>Pesantren </em>of Miftahul Ulum, Suren, Jember. To delve into the focus of this research, the researcher, thus, tried to understand and interpret the development of the <em>pesantren</em> from the perspective of social capital. To achieve these objectives, this research was conducted by using a qualitative approach with the type of phenomenology using a single site design. The data collection technique used was participant observation, so that researcher could participate in every Islamic boarding school's institutional and educational programs. This research finds that social capital is able to transform <em>pesantren </em>from institution with an isolative-traditionalist paradigmatic system to a modernist synthesis. Even the education system is from a dichotomous to a non-dichotomous system (a pattern of education that is oriented towards spiritualistic-humanist values); theocentric to theoanthropocentric pattern. This social capital is also a potential for <em>pesantren</em> as spiritual patrons and the vanguard of the source of values and morality of the surrounding community.</p>

Blockchain adoption in supply networks: a social capital perspective

Purpose This study aims to contribute to the early but fervent debate on blockchain and supply networks by proposing a novel theoretical perspective on blockchain adoption grounded on social capital theory. In particular, it seeks to answer the following question: what is the role of social capital in shaping the decision to adopt blockchain in supply networks? Design/methodology/approach Multiple case-studies, based on interviews performed with managers of eight firms, were used. Findings The social capital theory emerged as an additional but necessary lens to investigate blockchain implementation in supply networks. The intuitions proposed highlighted the importance of managers’ sensemaking for investigating technology adoption. Relational capital emerged as a necessary but not sufficient condition to adopt blockchain in supply networks. In addition, it is argued a relationship between competitive opportunities at the firm level and the idea to adopt the blockchain. The opportunity to act as “Tertius Gaudens” or as “Tertius Iungens” information brokers in supply networks should severely affect firms’ proneness toward the adoption of blockchain solutions. Originality/value This is one of the first studies in the literature investigating blockchain adoption in supply networks from a social capital perspective. It introduces new issues to the debate related to the role of blockchain in the supply chain by discussing the role of goal misalignment and competitive advantage, which emerged as crucial for shaping the decision to adopt blockchain in supply networks.

Kemiskinan dan Struktur Sosial di Maluku Dalam Perspektif Social Capital

This article aims to analyze the poverty problems and social structure in Maluku from a social capital perspective. Poverty is a human problem that hinders prosperity and civilization. The discourse of poverty in Indonesia to Maluku remains a crucial discourse to discuss and find a solution. Poverty has become a chronic problem because it is related to gaps and unemployment. In a proper sense, poverty is understood as a state of lack of money and goods to ensure survival. In Maluku, the latest data on poverty was recorded by BPS (center for statistic data) as of 2020 from September 2020, BPS recorded the number of poor people in Maluku amounting to 322.40 thousand people, or an increase of 4.2 thousand people when compared to March 2020, which was 318.18 thousand souls. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, this article offers a mapping of problems and approaches to social capital to address the acute problem of poverty in Maluku.