Social Capital: Theory and ResearchNan Lin, Karen S. Cook, Ronald S. Burt Leading scholars in the field of social networks from diverse disciplines present the first systematic and comprehensive collection of current theories and empirical research on the informal connections that individuals have for support, help, and information from other people. Expanding on concepts originally formulated by Pierre Bourdieu and James Coleman, this seminal work will find an essential place with educators and students in the fields of social networks, rational choice theory, institutions, and the socioeconomics of poverty, labor markets, social psychology, and race. The volume is divided into three parts. The first segment clarifies social capital as a concept and explores its theoretical and operational bases. Additional segments provide brief accounts that place the development of social capital in the context of the family of capital theorists, and identify some critical but controversial perspectives and statements regarding social capital in the literature. The editors then make the argument for the network perspective, why and how such a perspective can clarify controversies and advance our understanding of a whole range of instrumental and expressive outcomes. Social Capital further provides a forum for ongoing research programs initiated by social scientists working at the crossroads of formal theory and new methods. These scholars and programs share certain understandings and approaches in their analyses of social capital. They argue that social networks are the foundation of social capital. Social networks simultaneously capture individuals and social structure, thus serving as a vital conceptual link between actions and structural constraints, between micro- and macro-level analyses, and between relational and collective dynamic processes. They are further cognizant of the dual significance of the "structural" features of the social networks and the "resources" embedded in the networks as defining elements of social capital. Nan Lin is professor of sociology, Duke University. Karen Cook is Ray Lyman Wilber Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Stanford University. Ronald S. Burt is Hobart W. Williams Professor of Sociology and Strategy, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. |
From inside the book
... expected to benefit both the collective and the individuals in the collective. At the group level, social capital represents some aggregation of valued resources (such as economic, political, cultural, or social, as in social ...
... expected requirement that there is closure or density in social relations and social networks (Bourdieu 1986; Coleman 1990; Putnam 1993, 1995a,b, 2000). Bourdieu, from his class perspective, sees social capital as the investment of the ...
... expects. In the Modeling Section below, I argue that two types of outcomes are possible as returns to social capital: instrumental and expressive. In the former, the return is the gaining of added resources, resources not possessed by ...
... expected to be affected by strong-tie support or social integration (Lin 1986). If, however, the returns concern instrumental outcomes such as searching for better job or earnings, where theories have argued for the strength of weaker ...
... expected returns. I propose two major types of outcomes: (1) returns to instrumental action, and (2) return to ... expected in the short or long term, social exchange may not entail such expectation. What is expected is that the ego and ...
Contents
3 | |
Structural Holes versus Network Closure as Social Capital | 31 |
Measurement Techniques | 57 |
How Much Is That Network Worth? Social Capital | 85 |
Interpersonal Ties Social Capital and Employer | 105 |
The Value of Social | 127 |
The Influence of Social Capital | 159 |
Social Networks and Social Capital | 209 |
Getting Support | 233 |
Index | 325 |