May 10, 2022 3:00 PM (GMT+1)

Pick one of the three questions for your essay:

• Can “social capital” explain anything?
• What is “social cohesion” and how can it be measured?
• What is “social structure”?

Social Capital

Coleman (1988) defined social capital as a set of resources embedded in social structures that enable actors to act together more effectively to achieve common goals

This definition highlights the two key aspects of social capital: it is a resource that is embedded in social structures, and it enables actors to act together more effectively. The resources that are embedded in social structures include networks of relationships, reciprocity, trust, and social norms. These resources can be used to achieve common goals by facilitating communication, coordination, and cooperation.

Social capital is the collective value of all the actual and potential resources embedded in social networks and institutionalized relationships.

It is a resource that inheres in the structure of social relations.

For Burt (2004), social capital is the ability of actors to secure benefits by virtue of their position in a network. Thus, it is a social network concept, as the position of an individual in a network may hold value in terms of social capital.

Reading List

• Emile Durkheim, Suicide: Study in Sociology, 1897. – (I strongly rec- ommend reading this)
• Robert J. Sampson, Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect, 2012.
• James S. Coleman, ’Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital’, AJS 94, 1988.
• Alessandro Portes, ’Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology’, ARS 24, 1998.

References