"Social Capital"

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I attended a meeting yesterday and ended up in a discussion with a Harvard Professor who has done extensive work in the area of "Social Capital". He has a list of impressive stats that cover almost every realm of social interaction and his thesis might explain many of the social conditions we hear about (including many comments here on A2K!) about the current state of civic affairs in the US. (i.e. parental participation in schools, apathy in voting, etc..)

I plan on digging into the topic more but I'm just curious if any of you are famaliar with the concept of Social Capital and, if so, what your thoughts on it are.

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Interesting, fishin'. Although I am not familiar with the express term, I would guess it to mean "investment" in group relationships. Lots of labels are given to old stuff that has been researched anew. Last night, when I watched The Discovery Channel, I saw a label that I had never heard before. A scientist from Oxford University, investigating Stone Henge, was referred to as a cognitive archaeologist.

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Yup. You've guessed pretty closely there Letty! Here's a page with a bit of a description on Social Capital:
http://www.infed.org/biblio/social_capital.htm

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I'm not familiar with the specific term "social capital", but your description sounds like it might be a spin-off of the economic analysis of human behavior, including non-market behavior. This approach was pioneered by the University of Chicago's Gary Becker. Becker received the Nobel Prize for his work in 1992.

Hope that helped

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Social Captol?-to me its gotta be New Orleans

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Interesting info, fishin'. I do believe that there is a decline in the group activities that were mentioned, but for different reasons.

I noted that James Coleman was among those mentioned in the link. He, as I recall, was responsible for busing in the U.S. , based upon the idea that culturally deprived kids learned more when placed in the same classroom with those who are not. Later, he recanted. That's from memory.

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Social capital was a much more integral part of both economic and social relations at one time. You might read:

The Roots of Rural Capitalism: Western Massachusetts 1780-1860
Christopher Clark

This is not a Marxist screed but an analysis of how precapitalist rural society in New England worked by a respected British social historian.

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Thomas wrote:

I'm not familiar with the specific term "social capital", but your description sounds like it might be a spin-off of the economic analysis of human behavior, including non-market behavior. This approach was pioneered by the University of Chicago's Gary Becker. Becker received the Nobel Prize for his work in 1992.

Interesting! I'm not famaliar with Becker but what I peeked at there seems to be a tie-in. I'm not sure which is an extension of which but they look very related. Thanks!

farmerman wrote:

Social Captol?-to me its gotta be New Orleans

I am soooo there! Very Happy

Letty wrote:

Interesting info, fishin'. I do believe that there is a decline in the group activities that were mentioned, but for different reasons.

They only hit on a few there on the linked site but when talking with Putnam yesterday he claims to have looked at records for almost 200 groups/activities and they all show the exact same trend. When he graphs each from 1900 to 1997 every one of them shows a tremendous climb in participation up until 1964 and then a fast decline.

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Very interesting fishin man worth looking into. Thanks for bringing this topic to the forum.

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Interesting concept, reading along. E.G. and I have talked about this and political capital, but I think we haven't been using it exactly right. For example, if I did a favor for a fellow director, I'd consider it political capital -- it might (or may not) pay off down the line.

This seems larger and more intricate.

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Acquiunk wrote:

Social capital was a much more integral part of both economic and social relations at one time.

In our chat yesterday he made a comment about there being a simialr pattern in the 1800s but we didn't get into it very much. Maybe the book you refernced is a part of what he was referring to? I'll have to dig into it.

JoanneDorel wrote:

Very interesting fishin man worth looking into. Thanks for bringing this topic to the forum.

Sure! It's a facinating subject. So many things can be rolled into it! Wink

Sozobe wrote:

Interesting concept, reading along. E.G. and I have talked about this and political capital, but I think we haven't been using it exactly right. For example, if I did a favor for a fellow director, I'd consider it political capital -- it might (or may not) pay off down the line.

It seems very close. From my understanding it isn't "social capital" if you expect a direct return from the person you would do a favor. One of the concepts here is that there is no direct expectation of anything in return. The idea being that I do things for my "social network" with the trust and/or faith that if something comes up they'd be willing to do what they can to assist me.

The social trust there is the key to the whole thing. Putnam's theory being that if that trust exists then society as a whole has a lower anxiety level, less stress, less crime, etc..

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sozobe wrote:

Interesting concept, reading along. E.G. and I have talked about this and political capital, but I think we haven't been using it exactly right. For example, if I did a favor for a fellow director, I'd consider it political capital -- it might (or may not) pay off down the line.

IMO, the only big difference is that you use "political" in more inclusive manner than would most when they say "political capital" (e.g. I only use if on the governmental political level).

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Yep - I have been familiar with the concept over the last 15 years or so.

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dlowan wrote:

Yep - I have been familiar with the concept over the last 15 years or so.

Well tell me more oh-bunny-one-kanobe! Very Happy

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Lol! Sorry - I am no professional in the area, but I see the political thrust of it as being a way of broadening the current dominant discourse of economic rationalism, by trying to make visible, in a manner which uses the language of the thing "against" it, if you will - by trying to make visible the greater realities around the realities which economic rationalism focusses itself upon, and values.

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dlowan wrote:

....a way of broadening the current dominant discourse of economic rationalism, by trying to make visible, in a manner which uses the language of the thing "against" it, if you will - by trying to make visible the greater realities around the realities which economic rationalism focusses itself upon, and values.

Is this going to be on the exam?

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Like - institutions, societal relationships, societal cohesion and goodwill, - things which may be ignored in bean counting.

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What Deb said (whatever it was) Shocked

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Here is a website:

Not sure how good it is!!!!!

I came across the term at various seminars and presentations.

http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/scapital/whatsc.htm

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http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/scapital/

http://dep.eco.uniroma1.it/~soccap/eng-index.htm

http://www.cfsv.org/communitysurvey/

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"Social Capital"

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