social capital

What are the different forms of capital?

economic

social

cultural

what is social capital

Social capital is the resources embedded in social relations or social networks.


Social capital is the ability to gain access to resources of other people by virtue of membership in networks or larger social structures.


Precisely, individual actors and their relations form the basis of social capital

How do various forms of capital complement each other?


function additively but also
Various forms of capital not only
interactively

Theory of Social capital

—A theory of capital explains a mechanism by which capital is produced, reproduced and accumulated


—Marx, - capital is a part of surplus value created in a production process


Social capital argues for investment in social relations so that resources embedded in these relations become the mechanism by which individual and collective actors gain advantage

Locations/Sites of Social Capital?
Social and symbolic ties

— Social capital is rooted precisely at the juncture between individuals and their relations and is contained in the meso-level structure or in social networks.


— In a broader sense, social capital is the arrangement of resources wielded by social and symbolic ties to reduce transaction costs, to improve cooperation and to help people pursue their goals (Faist, 2000:19).

1. Social ties
—Social ties are a continuing series of interpersonal transactions to which participants attach shared interests, obligations, expectations, and norms.


—Strong ties are characterized by intensive transactions between the participants or members.


—Weak ties imply only indirect or more superficial personal contact.

— 2. Symbolic ties are not necessarily a continuing series of transactions. For example, they can be mobilized even in the absence of earlier direct contact, based on presumed commonalties of the participants.


— Symbolic ties are perceived bonds, both face-to-face and indirect, to which participants attach shared meanings, memories, future expectations, and representations.

Contents of social and symbolic ties

Contents of social and symbolic ties

  1. Obligation as a result of social exchange
  2. Reciprocity as a social norm
  3. Solidarity based on collective
    representation
  1. Obligations as a result of social exchange
    — Obligation is what you are obliged to do

— If A does something for B and trusts that B will
reciprocate this in the future, this leads A to expect B to do something and B to an obligation finalizing this trust.
Three elements are crucial for expectations and obligations to work as social capital:


— the degree of trust in the other actors,


— the actual number of obligations and


— the kind of services rendered in the past.

2. Reciprocity as a social norm
— Reciprocity refers to exchanges of roughly equivalent values in which the actions of each party are contingent on the prior actions of the others in such a way that good is returned for good, and bad for bad.
— Reciprocity is a social norm when at least two sub-norms are adhered to:
— first, persons help those who have helped them, and
— second, persons should not harm those who helped them before.

3. Solidarity based on collective representation
— A third dimension of social — Focused solidarity:
capital is solidarity with others in a group who share similar social and symbolic ties.


— This is a fellow-feeling. It is the ability to empathize, the willingness to see things through someone else's eyes, to commiserate, the capacity to rejoice in other person's joys and feel sad because of their sorrows.
directed towards a narrow kin group


— Diffuse solidarity: pertains to larger aggregates such as religion, ethnicity, race, language, nation-state

Some Key Concepts

‘Strength by of weak ties

  1. Weak ties theory describes how acquaintances (as opposed to friends) can be surprisingly powerful in influencing us.
  2. Individuals with more weak ties have greater opportunities for mobility
  3. It is the people with whom we are the least connected who offer us the most opportunities
    4 Lots of weak ties provide "seedbed of individual autonomy

Social capital of structural holes
§ Structural holes are the weak connections between different groups.


§ Holes create competitive advantage for individuals whose relationships span the holes.

Benefits of Structural holes
§ Information benefit: Holes are gaps between non-redundant sources of information. Non- redundant contacts offer information that is more additive than overlapping.


§ Control benefit: Better-connected people benefit disproportionately from the holes by having control over third-party relationships.

Bonding social capital refers to relationships amongst members of a network who are similar in some form (Putnam, 2000). Bonding social capital is generated by strong ties; considered essential in every society. Bonding social capital is the effect of maintaining strong ties

Bridging social capital refers to relationships amongst people who are dissimilar in a demonstrable fashion, such as age, socio-economic status, race/ethnicity and education (Szreter and Woolcock, 2004). Bridging social capital: weak ties at play: bridges more essential than other weak ties. Bridging social capital is the effect of maintaining bridges

Benefits of social capital

  1. Access to resources of others
  2. Improved information
  3. Social credentials
  4. Control and authority
  5. Reinforcement

The downside of the social capital
— Exclusion of outsiders
— Excess claims on group members
— Restriction on individual freedoms — Downward leveling norms