Social capital and mentoring: perspectives and debates

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Social capital and mentoring perspectives and
debates
Glasgow November 2006

• Glasgow
• November 2006

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Mentoring

• Modelling and guiding
• Relationships matter
• Emotional labour
• Links and bridges

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So what does this have to do with social capital?
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Whatever that might be!
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A definition

• Social capital refers to social networks that
  may provide access to resources and social
  support.
• Policy Research Initiative, Ottawa, 2005

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A definition

• Social capital refers to features of social
  organization such as networks, norms and social
  trust that facilitate co-ordination and
  co-operation for mutual benefit.
• Robert Putnam, 1995

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What is social capital?

• Capital a resource
• Social capital network assets, which empower
  action by promoting co-operation and reciprocity

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Network assets matter
You should always go to other people's funerals
otherwise, they won't come to yours.
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Social capital is trendy
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Why peoples networks shouldnt be neglected

• Loneliness and isolation are miserable and they
  are also bad for you
• In many areas of life, people achieve more when
  they co-operate than when they work alone
• Connections matter to the powerful and the middle
  class, so why would they be irrelevant for the
  powerless?
• Ignoring social connections means we might do
  harm when we mean to do good
• Other people are talking about social capital, so
  we need to understand it even if we disagree with
  it!

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A social capital approach . . .

• Draws attention to networks, norms and values
• Can also draw attention to trust and reciprocity
• Sees connections as a capital asset (for
  individuals and communities) which requires
  investment
• May also identify relationships as a source of
  power (Bourdieu)

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Stigmatised groups and areas

• Described in disparaging terms
• Often the result of past policies
• From welfare to activation
• Defined as socially excluded

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Types of social capital

• Horizonal networks ties to family, locals, and
  close friends, as well as looser ties to more
  diverse groups of people
• Vertical networks connect people across unequal
  positions of power and authority

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Types of social capital

• Close horizonal networks ? bonding social
  capital
• Extended horizontal networks ? bridging social
  capital
• Vertical networks ? linking social capital

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Recent research findings on stigmatised groups
and areas

• R. Forrest and Ade Kearns, Joined-up Places?
  Social cohesion and neighbourhood regeneration,
  Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 1999
• Vicki Cattell, Poor people, poor places and poor
  health, Social Science Medicine, 2001
• Martin Cloonan, A capital project? The New Deal
  for Musicians in Scotland, Studies in the
  Education of Adults, 2004
• Deborah Warr, Social networks in a discredited
  neighbourhood, Journal of Sociology, 2005
• John Field, Social Capital and Lifelong Learning,
  Policy Press, 2005

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Recent research findings on stigmatised groups
and areas

• Are often well connected through bonding ties
• Workplace and friendship ties are often very
  local
• Tend to be less well connected through bridging
  ties
• Usually unable to access linking ties (except
  through intermediaries)

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Recent research findings on stigmatised groups
and areas

• Demands on bonding ties are high where markets
  are inaccessible and services poor
• Bonding ties in stigmatised communities are often
  seen as having a low social value
• Trust is often bounded, problematic and regulated
  (it has to be)

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Recent research findings on stigmatised groups
and areas

• Intermediaries can broker new bridging and
  linking connections eg New Deal for
  Musicians, New Deal for Disabled People
• Intermediaries are sometimes limited in their own
  connections eg community development workers
  with no business contacts

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Recent research findings on stigmatised groups
and areas

• Close connections often lead to a levelling
  downwards and inhibit innovation and dynamism,
  which might disrupt existing relationships
• Connected communities sometimes prefer insider
  knowledge to more formal mechanisms and
  institutions
• Inequalities and rivalries inside communities
  affect flows of knowledge
• Community activists are often adept at learning
  about and networking within existing power
  structures
• Close communities can be very patriarchal

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A simple matrix
Bonding
High
Low
Bridging
High
Low
Tom Schuller 2006
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A simple matrix
Bonding
High
Confident, creative
Comfortable, complacent
Low
Bridging
High
Atomistic
Suspicious, Low energy
Low
Tom Schuller 2006
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Some concluding questions

• How can we best measure network assets?
• What is the impact of limits in (y)our own
  networks?
• How do we train, develop and support social
  capitalists?
• What are virtual connections doing to peoples
  networks and communities?

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Contact details john.field_at_stir.ac.uk