Social capital: Theoretical background

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Social capitalTheoretical background

• Rich Ling

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Quality of Life


Social
Physical
Material
Develop.
Emotional
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Social Capital
ICT use
Bonding
Societal level
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Bridging
Individual level
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Definition of social capital

• The degree to which a group however this is
  defined uses mechanisms such as social
  networks, trust, reciprocity and shared norms and
  values to facilitate collaboration and
  cooperation.

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Traditions in Social Capital

• The academic tradition
• Traditional sociological project
• Revitalization
• World bank tradition

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Definition of social capital

• Plays on traditional sociological issues
• Mechanical/organic solidarity Durkheim
• Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft Tönnies
• Class in itself/Class for itself Marx
• Social capital
• Provides a framework for describing the positive
  (and negative) consequences of sociability
• Examines non-monetary forms of exchange and power

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Background for social capital

• Bonding social capital
• Developed by James Coleman
• Discussed and further developed by Pierre
  Bourdieu
• Popularized by Robert Putnam
• Bridging social capital
• Granovetter
• Bert
• Social capital is more important as society is
  more individualized
• Beck and Beck

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Bourdieu

• One can reduce society to to a discontinuous
  series of instantaneous mechanical equlibria
  between agents who are treated as interchangeable
  particles
• This sees society as a game of roulette
• All things are changed with the spin of a wheel
• Nothing is stable, all is in play with every
  interaction

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Bourdieu

• To understand society one needs a concept of
  capital
• Understand the stability as well as the flux
• Capital that is accrued, held and used by the
  individual
• Economic capital
• Cultural capital
• Social capital is accrued, held and used by the
  group

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Social capital Bordieu

• Social capital
• Is made up of social obligations
• Can be converted to economic capital in some
  cases
• the aggregate of the actual or potential
  resources which are linked to possession of a
  durable network of more or less institutionalised
  relationships

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Social capital Bordieu

• It focuses on the benefits that come to the
  individual as a result of their participation in
  various groups.
• Obligations, loyalty, reciprocity and unspecified
  exchanges are only a leitmotiv that disguises the
  true market exchanges that make up the concept.

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Loury

• An economist
• Wanted to understand access based on social
  connections
• Social context had an effect on ones economic
  situation

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Coleman

• Based on the work of Loury
• Focused on the role of reciprocity, trust and
  gifting
• A multiplicity of ties results in norm
  observation
• New York diamond district ethos
• The weight of the links enforced reciprocity and
  trust in the milieu
• A seemingly negative version of social capital

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Coleman

• Social capital is also an amorphous thing
• It is an important resource for individual and
  may greatly affect their ability to act and their
  perceived quality of life. They have the
  capability of bringing it into being. Yet,
  because the benefits of actions that bring social
  capital into being are largely experienced by
  persons other than the actor, it is often not in
  his sic. interest to bring it into being. The
  result is that most forms of social capital are
  created or destroyed as by-products of other
  activities. Social capital arises or disappears
  without anyone willing it into our out of being
  and is thus even less recognized and taken into
  account in social action than its already
  intangible character would warrant (118).

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Coleman

• Coleman is a rationalist
• Norms are intentionally established, indeed as a
  means of reducing externalities, and their
  benefits are ordinarily captured by those who are
  responsible for establishing them
• Social capital is a type of residue
• There are certain associations with the so-called
  social exchange theory

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Putnam

• Has been most central in operationalizing and
  popularizing the concept
• Putnam finds social capital in the US is
  dwindling
• Generation shift
• Suburbanization
• TV
• Question as to the effect of ICT on social
  capital
• Costa and Kahn find that he understates the
  influence of womens increased participation in
  the workforce

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Granovetter

• It is not necessarily just the intensity of group
  ties
• The issue of bridging
• The role of weak ties
• Bert and the speculation in the exploitation weak
  ties

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Negative aspects of social capital (Portes)

• Exclusion of outsiders
• Excess claims on group membership
• Restrictions on individual freedom
• Existence of downward levelling norms
• The bounded solidarity issue

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The development of friendship and trust

• There are many stages in the development of
  friendship and trust.
• Similar background
• Moving in the same circles
• Meeting and striking up an acquaintance
• The development of trust
• Duck says that trust is the motor of intimacy
• Delhey and Newton is interesting reading
• Trust arises most easily
• In situations where there is little social strife
  and a high sense of public safety
• Among those who are successful in life
• Among those with INFORMAL social networks
• This supports the mobile phone theory of social
  capital (e-living deliverabiles)

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Homans and exchange theory

• Homans suggests that interaction (reciprocity) is
  ultimately based on propinquity.
• Uses the Westgate studies of Festinger
• Neighbors were friends
• Apt. 3 and 8 had the most friends

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Homans and exchange theory

• Sociation is negative reciprocity.
• We only engage in it as long it is a positive
  experience.
• For all actions taken by persons, the more often
  a particular action of a person is rewarded, the
  more likely the person will perform that action
• We withdraw if it is a negative sum in our
  estimation
• Approaches the image of Bourdieus roulette table
• Problems with Homansian exchange theory
• We are not rational in our actions but seek out
  the solution that is good enough
• Does not account for the breakdown of the free
  rider effect.
• A rational person would only consume and not
  contribute to the social order
• Assumes that social interaction is a defeat of
  the proud individual there is not the sense
  that sociation is a synergetic activity

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General aspects of social capital

• The importance of
• a balanced social network
• trust in the relations
• avoiding reductionism

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Social capital and ICTs

• The effects of social capital on ICT
• diffusion
• The effects of ICTs on social capital
• Diminish social capital
• Supplement social capital
• Transform social capital
• through empowering
• balkanising society

SOCQUIT Seminar Sevilla 14 15 June 2003
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Effects of SC on ICTs

• Diminishing SC
• Kraut (1998,2003) loneliness (not confirmed in
  follow-up)
• Time displacement drop in social life (Nie/
  Erbring 2000)
• Addiction with virtual reality users, chatters
  (Hahn/Jerusalem 2001)
• Supplementing SC (dominant opinion)
• Strengthening bridging capital
• Weak ties, after relocation -gt mobile society
• loose networks in civic engagement -gt civil
  society
• Helping bonding capital
• Local ties -gt glocalised society
• more with friends than with family -gt
  individualised society
• Managing social proximity with differentiated use
  of ICTs -gt privacy
• Support of informal interaction

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Effects of SC on ICTs

• Transforming SC through empowering
• Local community computer networks (Wellman 2001)
• ICT use by NGOs (Frissen 2003)
• The society-shaping power of new technologies ?
• Transforming SC through balkanising society
• Communication-poor and rich both get richer, but
  the richer get even more richer
• Maybe typical of early diffusion, especially when
  market-driven ? (Putnam 2000)
• But emailing online groups make US Americans
  contact people from all strands of society
  (Horrigan 2003)
• Caveats
• Internet the mobile phone are only recent
  (cultural lag)!
• Can you explain Latin communication behaviour
  with US studies?

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Jeroens questions/statements

• Commercial policy is not concerned with social
  capital, only with profits
• It is not possible to define ICTs
• Social interaction is ultimately reducible to
  individual psychology or biological imperatives
• The mobile telephone will lead to balkanized
  social interaction

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The effects of SC on ICTs

• Diffusion
• the diffusion of an ICT depends on the
  information by mass-media and by interpersonal
  information first more on bridging, when
  reaching majority users more on bonding capital

SOCQUIT Seminar Sevilla 14 15 June 2003
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