Abstract
Abstract. Social capital has recently emerged as an important interdisciplinary research area. It is frequently used as a framework for understanding various social issues in temporal communities, neighbourhoods and groups. In particular, researchers in the social sciences and the humanities have used social capital to understand trust, shared understanding, reciprocal relationships, social network structures, common norms and cooperation, and the roles these entities play in various aspects of temporal communities. Despite proliferation of research in this area, little work has been done to extend this effort to technology-driven learning communities (also known as virtual learning communities). This paper surveys key interdisciplinary research areas in social capital. It also explores how the notions of social capital and trust can be extended to virtual communities, including virtual learning communities and distributed communities of practice. Research issues surrounding social capital and trust as they relate to technology-driven learning communities are identified.
Highlights
Social capital has become an important research area drawing on several disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities
Social capital has provided a theoretical framework for studying community development (Gittell & Vidal, 1998), organizational development (Cohen & Prusak, 2001), grief intervention (Preece, 2002), the economic performance of firms (Baker, 1990), the creation of intellectual capital (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998), learning in response to change and sustainability in communities (Falk & Harrison, 2000), community and school achievement (World Bank, 1999), community development issues (Gittell & Vidal, 1998), and patterns of social disparity created by lack of technological skills in society and the benefits to those who possess such skills (Resnick, 2002)
There are other types of awareness that are mentioned in the Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) literature: causal awareness of others in a group, which refers to the sense of who is around, what they are up to and whether people are available (Borning & Travers, 1991); and situation awareness, a phenomenon of experts interacting with complex systems and adjusting their performance dynamically (Gibson 1995)
Summary
Ben Daniel is a Ph.D. candidate in the Interdisciplinary Studies programme at the University of Saskatchewan.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
