Social Capital In Terms Research Articles

An empirical framework for scaling-out of water system innovations: Lessons from diffusion of water system innovations in the Makanya catchment in Northern Tanzania

Abstract Scaling-out of water system innovations such as soil and water conservation is important for increased and sustainable agricultural production. A wealth of upgraded soil and water conservation technologies such as terraces has not been widely adopted in places vulnerable to land degradation and agricultural water stress. Much focus should be on rethinking approaches for scaling-out of well-proved innovations rather than on generation of new technologies. This paper presents an empirical framework for scaling-out water system innovations at catchment level. The framework is built based on findings from studies that were conducted in the Makanya catchment in Northern Tanzania. The empirical data and information were collected through inter-related research methods entailing farmers’ questionnaire surveys and consultations with key NGOs involved in the promotion of agricultural land and water management technologies. The data collection involved 234 and 294 farmers in the first and second rounds, respectively. The framework has four stages, which are technology and community strength evaluation, partnership building, scaling-out process and uptake evaluation. Stage 1 evaluates the technology efficacy in conserving soil and water and increasing benefits, and community strength mainly in terms of social capital. Stage 2 entails partnering with the target community and change agents to champion the scaling-out process in the target community. Stage 3 is concerned with the actual innovation scaling-out process through effective pathways such as field demonstration, lead farmers and appropriate channels of communication. Stage 4 evaluates the outcome of the innovation scaling-out process. Though the framework is developed using field evidences related to scaling-out of terraces, it could be adapted to enhance scaling-out of other water system innovations.

Midlothian Befrienders' Cross-Generational Networking across the School Community Divide to Build Social Capital

Social capital is a designer social science concept that is very much in academic and popular vogue. Indeed, in recent years there has been a proliferation of theoretical articles in academia lauding the veracity of social capital as a “silver bullet,” explain all, cure all phenomena. However, it seems that little work has been undertaken on linking the theory of social capital to work in practice in the field of community learning and development. This article aims to redress the balance in some way by offering an analysis of social capital in terms of a “work in progress” at an intergenerational school/seniors' community project in Midlothian, Scotland, where the theory of social capital is informing practice and thinking of the staff of Midlothian Befrienders and vice versa.

Do public libraries contribute to social capital?: A preliminary investigation into the relationship

Public libraries have been held in high regard by communities since they were established in North America in the mid-19th century. Recently, with their diminishing informational role combined with the economic downturn, libraries have had to reassert their relevance to communities in a period of severely reduced municipal budgets. One role that is often assumed but rarely examined in depth is the library as a generator of social capital. This preliminary study investigates the relationship between public libraries and indicators of social capital using a questionnaire survey administered in three branch libraries in a large Midwestern American city. Library users had significantly higher levels of social capital in terms of community involvement and trust than a random sample of city residents. When frequency of library use was correlated with indicators of social capital there were mixed results. Library use was significantly associated with community involvement, but not with trust. Lack of trust in neighbors may be the incentive for people to become more involved in their communities in order to create a safer environment. The findings suggest that there is a strong relationship between public libraries and social capital but that further research is needed to broaden the base of the study and to include interviews with library patrons and staff so as to get a more nuanced view of how social capital is created.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL CAPITAL AND REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS IN POLAND

This article aims at presenting different approaches to the phenomenon of social capital The concept of social capital is ambiguous and that is why we will highlight a number of definitions of this notion. The central attention of the paper focuses on the relationship between social capital and regional development and competitiveness. The fundamental question concerns the impact of social capital on the regional economic performance. Hence, we will survey the empirical examination of 16 Polish regions in terms of social capital. We will also study whether the regional level of social capital depends on the level of competitiveness. The purpose of this article is also to make a contribution to the discussion concerning the relationship between economic development and social capital

Does Social Capital Act as a Buffer Against HIV Risk Among Migrant Men in Sub-Saharan Africa?

The 2007 World Bank data on HIV/AIDS for sub-Saharan Africa indicates that 22.5 million adults and children over 15 are living with HIV, including 1.7 million new infections. AIDS killed approximately 2.3 million people in the same year, making this region by far the worst affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This paper proposes a macro-level model for understanding the spread of disease within the context of migration. We use social capital theory to generate a framework for exploring how migration might serve as a conduit for the disease transmission. Specifically, we investigated male migrants in the Republic of Angola and argued that a migrant laborer's movement away from his village diminishes his social capital in terms of social support, norms, and networks while stresses from migration could prove to be conducive to the spread of the HIV virus. We use univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses to explore the relationship between migration and HIV risk while considering social capital as the intervening factor. Social capital is conceptualized as a combination of social engagement, social support, and person-to-person contact. To this end, this study analyzes secondary data collected on a sample of migrants in Angola. Two hypotheses are tested: Migrants have lower social capital than nonmigrants and lower levels of social capital are related to higher risky behaviors. Results indicate that migrants have a lower level of social capital and migrants with lower social capital tended to have higher risky behavior.

Managing the HR function: the role of social capital

PurposeUnder public sector reforms, HR departments are under increasing pressure to demonstrate how they add value to the organization. This paper seeks to contribute to our knowledge of HR functional roles in public sector organizations by considering how social capital may influence perceived HR department performance. Most prior research on HR functional performance has focused on what HR professionals do, rather than on how they do it, yet such process factors have been shown in the literature on organizational strategy to be crucial determinants of long‐term effectiveness. This paper aims to use the framework of social capital as a means of conceptualizing HR processes, and investigates how these are played out in an exploratory study.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on four matched‐pair case studies in public sector organizations in the UK. A total of 77 interviews are conducted.FindingsThe research found that there appeared to be a link between HR social capital and perceptions of HR functional performance on the part of both HR staff and line managers.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a piece of case study based research in the UK public sector, and therefore the findings may not be generalizable. It would have been preferable to have had some hard metrics for HR department performance, but perceptual data was relied on instead. Further research is therefore recommended.Practical implicationsThe implication for HR practitioners is that attention needs to be paid to the structural and relational dimensions of how the HR department operates, as well as to what it does, if it is to be regarded as effective.Originality/valueThis is a piece of original research on a topic that has received almost no prior attention. Previous research on the link between HRM and performance has focused almost exclusively on HR strategies and policies and has neglected process and implementation. This paper presents some evidence to show that HR processes in terms of social capital may be an important element.

Geographic Allocation of OSS Contributions: The Role of Institutions and Culture

So-called open source software (OSS) is marked by free access to the software and its source code. Copyright-based OSS licenses permit users to use, change, improve and redistribute the software, which is designed and developed in a public, collaborative manner. High quality OSS products like Linux, Apache etc. are developed by thousands of volunteers, who often do not receive direct monetary reward. Thus, OSS seems to be an example of a ‘private provision of a public good’, and some argue that OSS is a ‘new intellectual property paradigm’ for the digital economy. Therefore, OSS has been in the focus of economic research for some years. However, it is still not known which institutional and cultural factors favor OSS development, although the differences of countries in OSS activities can not be solely explained by GDP, education and internet access. For this reason, we perform a cross-country study analyzing how the number of OSS developers per inhabitants and the level of OSS activity of a country depends on institutional and cultural factors. We make use of data about OSS developers registered at SourceForge, and are able to assign 94% of them to their countries. We then run regressions with several institutional and cultural factors. Our findings are that a culture characterized by individualism/self-determination is in favor of OSS. Also, social capital in terms of interpersonal trust has a positive impact on the number of OSS developers as well as on the OSS activity level. The openness to novelty is relevant only with respect to scientific progress, i.e. an optimistic view of scientific progress is significantly positive. While the attitude towards competition was never significant, less regulated countries have more OSS activists and activity. Furthermore, the protection of intellectual property rights has (if all) a positive impact. Our study contributes to the understanding of the impact of cultural and institutional factors in general as well as in particular with respect to OSS. Additionally it also improves the understanding of OSS. OSS has similarities to technical science and scientific culture, is a a public good game with the contributions are a means to an end. OSS is a new intellectual property right paradigm and is based on an entrepreneurial spirit.

Measuring Social Capital and Its Differentials by Family Structures

Social capital has often been invoked to explain differences in children’s well-being by family structure. That is, developmental outcome for children in lone or step parent family is not at par with that of children from intact family because parental investments on children may be lower not only in financial and human capital but also in social capital. This proposition has been difficult to examine in greater depth because of lack of conceptual clarity and of data to measure social capital. Using a definition of social capital as the “ability to secure benefits through membership in networks and other social structures”, we focus on the impact of family structures on social capital engendered by three types of networks: (a) informal ties with kin, families, friends, neighbours, and workmates; (b) generalized relationships with local people, people in civic groups, and people in general; and, (c) relationships through institutions. In particular, we examine differences in the measures of social capital among women living with no children in various marital arrangements, and women living with children in intact, step, and lone parent families. Data from the Canadian 2003 General Social Survey on Social Engagement confirm that social capital is indeed greater in intact families than in lone parent families. Mothers in intact families (especially married mothers) have larger informal networks, are members of more primordial and purposive organizations, have greater trust in people in the family, in the neighbourhood, and in people in general, and have greater confidence in government or business institutions. In general, social capital of mothers in step families is in between that of married mothers in intact families and lone mothers. Thus, the assumption in the literature that family structure can serve as a proxy for social capital may be justified. However, this study contributes a unique way of measuring social capital in terms of networks if and when data are available and a way of investigating the relationship between family structure and social capital; that is, the former as a determinant of the latter.

Meaningful distinctions within a concept: Relational, collective, and generalized social capital

The proliferation of definitions and applications of social capital has prompted debate regarding the usefulness of the concept; there is thus an urgent need for a more rigorous usage of the term. This article proposes a distinction between three meaningful variants within the concept of social capital for the purpose of an improved dialogue and a sharpened application. The differences between these three variants—relational, collective, and generalized social capital—are first illuminated through a conceptual discussion. An empirical analysis testing the linkages between relational and collective social capital is then provided in the context of a household disaster preparedness study in Dominica. Together, analytical and empirical evidence supports the idea that social capital covers a variety of interrelated, yet distinct, social processes that operate simultaneously and may serve different purposes. On the basis of these results, this article calls for a theoretically and empirically meaningful treatment of social capital in terms of its three variants.

Social capital: an asset or a liability to entrepreneurial activity?

This study has outlined a framework for studying social capital related to entrepreneurial activity. An acknowledgement of both positive and negative effects of social capital, as well as a distinction between business-related and civil society-related social capital, has led to a framework that focuses upon enabling versus disabling business-related social capital and encouraging versus discouraging civil society-related social capital. A representative sample consisting of 712 Norwegian farm households, in which 20% were engaged in entrepreneurial activity, was analysed to investigate hypothesised association between social capital and entrepreneurial activity. The analysis found evidence of enabling social capital in terms of diverse networks and in terms of strong ties that could facilitate cooperation. It also found disabling social capital in terms of overembeddedness in the farming community. Other results indicate that improved measures are needed to address civil society-related social capital.

Career Success in Training & Development: Is It What You Know or Who You Know?

A model illustrating the relationship between mentoring and job competency was developed and tested in a sample of 82 members of a local chapter of a national association for training and development professionals. Human capital was conceptualized in terms of job competency attainment and social capital in terms of mentoring and protege relationships. A series of hierarchical regression analyses were run to test the path model. Although a positive relationship was found between acting as a protege and job satisfaction, acting as a mentor had a negative relationship with income. The results showed a strong relationship between career competence and income, promotion, job satisfaction and career choice satisfaction. For training and development professionals, job competency is the key factor in their career success.

Education and Dimensions of Social Capital: Do Educational Effects Differ due to Educational Expansion and Social Security Expenditure?

To what extent does education affect formal and informal social capital, what is the influence of educational expansion, and welfare state contexts, and to what extent do educational effects on social capital differ under varying educational expansion and welfare state contexts? Multilevel estimates on 28 nations from the Eurobarometer (62.2; 2004) reveal that educational attainment increases all indicators of both formal and informal social capital except one: contact frequency with one’s neighbours. We attributed this latter finding to the existence of a localist orientation among lower educated individuals. The higher educated profit from socialization at home, at school, and through their social networks in terms of social capital. There are no consistent patterns that show that in countries with a high level of educational expansion and social security expenditure, levels of formal or informal social capital are on average lower or higher. Cross-level interaction estimates, however, strongly suggest that educational expansion decreases educational differences in both formal and informal social capital. These findings suggest that individuals are motivated and recruited through networks to become socially active.

Acculturating Indian Immigrant Men in New York City: Applying the Social Capital Construct to Understand Their Experiences and Health

This study qualitatively explored social capital available to individuals (N = 17) within a community-based purposive sample of adult male immigrants from India in New York City (NYC). Analysis of in-depth interview data identified possible pathways for social capital's influences upon acculturative stress. The study defined social capital in terms of the participants' social relationships among peers, in the workplace, and with their ethnic community. Their relationships were assessed in terms of support, trust, and reciprocity. Among the recent immigrants, hopelessness and frustration about future work prospects were associated with symptoms of depression and substance abuse. The participants identified wealth as a distinct marker of social class and they described social class as a combination of education and occupation. Social class largely determined the particular peer and community networks each participant joined. Participants relied upon ongoing connections with family in India, despite their geographic separation, to relieve acculturative stress. Social support from peers was the participants' most useful and immediate resource for alleviating acculturative stress. For participants of lower socioeconomic status, acculturative stress was compounded by social-relationship expectations and norms from India that persisted within NYCs immigrant community. Namely, lower-SES participants were more likely to experience frustration and setbacks when they sought out intimate social relationships with women.

The Importance of Different Forms of Social Capital for Health

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the concept of social capital and to distinguish its different forms, focusing on their potential effects on health. According to many scholars, social capital comprises social networks, norms of reciprocity or social support and social trust. In this article the core element, the social network, has been further distinguished by the direction of ties and levels of formality, strength and diversity. In the past few years there has been increased interest in social capital in the health field and a great deal of research has suggested that social capital is generally positively related to health. However, little research has been conducted into how different forms of social capital or social networks influence health. What is the difference, for instance, between bonding and bridging social capital in terms of health outcomes? It is important to distinguish the different forms because they imply different resources, support and obligations. More research needs to be conducted into the different forms of social capital and their effects on health. A special focus should be placed on the health impacts of cross-cutting — or bridging and linking — forms of social capital.

Social Capital and Social Economy in Sub-National Island Jurisdictions

This paper explores the concept of social capital in terms of the capacity of sub-national island jurisdictions (SNIJs) to exert their jurisdictional powers through formal and informal social policy and structures for economic purposes. It examines the ways in which jurisdictional capacity can generate (or conversely, deplete) social capital in the pursuit of economic sustainability. Strong bonds amongst islanders, effective relationships with the metropole, and resourceful use of jurisdictional capacity present advantages. Recommendations on how island jurisdictions can learn from each other in formal and informal policy initiatives are presented.

Challenges in Dealing with Different Interests between Organized and Unorganized Youth

In this paper I will describe the development of a program directed at youth problems in a mid- sized Norwegian town. The town is characterized by a rich variety of voluntary associations. Voluntary associations can be seen as a central part of Norwegian civil society. Along with describing the development of the program, I will describe the target groups of youngsters in the town center. Possessing little social capital in terms of organization, contact with and the ability to articulate their needs to the authorities in charge of the program, the target groups became losers in respect of the program. The program became dominated by organized groups and voluntary associations with more social capital as far as the program was concerned.

Social capital and geography of learning: Roles in accelerating the spread of integrated pest management

This paper aims to show the relevance of spatial proximity and social capital in accelerating the spread of agricultural technologies such as integrated pest management (IPM). The research was done in response to the problem of slow diffusion of agricultural technologies. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in investigating the process of sharing and learning of IPM. Results show that social capital in terms of kin networks and spatial proximity such as found among farm neighbours are essential in the learning process and hence, diffusion of IPM among Filipino farmers. Kin networks and farm location are then important considerations in sampling participants strategically for the long-season IPM farmer field schools (FFS).

Building social capital and learning environment in university?industry relationships

University–industry interactions have become an important phenomenon in recent years. Universities are viewed as engines of economic growth in the era of a knowledge economy. The recent literature on this topic is somewhat restrictive, as it has taken a resource-based view. We have argued here that an often over looked contribution that a university can make in its relationships with industrial firms is the building of social capital. On the basis of a study of university-industry research centres in the US, we have identified three dimensions of the interaction patterns analogous to the dimensions of social capital in terms of communication structure, sharing of visions and priorities, and building of a trusting relationship. We also explore the factors that help build these dimensions and their effect.

Exploring the efficacy of African-Americans’ job referral networks: A study of the obligations of exchange around job information and influence

Although the work of William Julius Wilson has done much to shed light on the role that social capital, or the lack thereof, has played in perpetuating joblessness among the urban poor, major gaps remain. Specifically, research in the urban poverty literature has almost exclusively theorized and measured social capital in terms of the poor’s network structure and composition. Thus, it is widely believed that the paucity of social capital among the urban poor is simply a function of having few contacts with job information and influence. Few have taken into account the conditions considered necessary to promote the type of personal relationships required for the informal transmission of valued resources; namely, networks of relations in which norms have been created, effective sanctions in place, expectations established, and trust bred. My work contributes to William Julius Wilson’s scholarly tradition by unpacking this primary source of the urban poor’s social capital deficiency.

Strategic alliances as social capital: a multidimensional view

AbstractDefining social capital in terms of the information benefits available to a firm due to its strategic alliances we present a theory of social capital that conceptualizes it as a multidimensional construct. We draw from the literature to argue that social capital yields three distinctly different kinds of information benefits in the form of information volume, information diversity, and information richness. This extends current theoretical and empirical research by specifying and empirically demonstrating three interrelated yet distinct dimensions of social capital. Firms vary in their levels of social capital not just on their structural position in an alliance network but also in the dynamics that underlie alliance formation and maintenance. More importantly, the different dimensions of social capital theoretically provide differential benefits. We establish the construct validity of our proposed three‐dimensional conceptualization of social capital using longitudinal data on the population of strategic alliances formed during the period 1980–94 by firms in the global steel industry. In addition, we establish predictive validity by demonstrating that the information dimensions have differential effects on firm performance, using firm nationality as a contingency. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.