Tristan Claridge
Author of Social Capital Research
Tristan Claridge
BA MNatResSt
Tristan Claridge completed a Masters thesis on social capital theory in 2004 at the University of Queensland. Although Tristan originally wanted to apply social capital theory to natural resource management outcomes in Australia, he found that the current understanding of social capital was not sufficiently conceptualised to allow this application[1] .
Where the majority of authors on the subject seem to approach social capital from a uni-disciplinary point, Tristan has cross cut these disciplines in this study.
The most important finding in this study is the steps towards a new conceptualisation of social capital. Tristan feels that this process is far from complete and will require extensive broad investigation into the underlying processes – particularly the direction of causality involved in many of the determinants of social capital. It should be highlighted that Tristan does not feel that this conceptualisation of social capital is sufficiently rigorous to be applied and further work is still required by questioning academics.
This site is the result of extensive investigation into social capital from various perspectives, sociology, political science, economics and psychology.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any points of clarification or if you would like to discuss any issues.
Since completing the research featured on this site, Tristan has been involved in research into behaviour change, university teaching and developing several businesses. As of January 2013 Tristan is in the final stages of a PhD looking at the role of social setting in determining student behaviour and learning outcomes in higher education.
Tristan has been teaching environmental science courses at the University of the Sunshine Coast since 2004 on a part time basis, including lecturing, tutoring, course development and course coordination. Tristan has taught environmental ethics, sustainable development, geographic information systems, environmental planning, and contemporary Australia courses.
Since 2004 Tristan has established several successful businesses mostly relating to social and environmental sustainability and appropriate technology. Businesses include Decompression (an Australian web development company), Green Damselfly (supporting eco ethical enterprises), Australian Organic Food Directory (supporting the organic food industry), Sales Media (an online promotion and marketing company), Eviport (a social networking and video streaming company), and a few other businesses.
While Tristan has not actively researched in the field of social capital, he is still intently interested in the concept and its application. Tristan welcomes comments, questions and input into this website.
Footnotes
- It was difficult to justify the application of social capital to natural resource management given the lack of rigour in the literature at the time. ^
Thank you for this excellent overview to Social Capital. I am undertaking research into older adult learners and one of my strands is considering how the concept of Social Capital can be applied to reinforce the argument that government should support older adults in many diverse ways within the scope of what could be called lifelong learning in order to alleviate pressures on other services. It seems to me the attraction of this is potentially different to the stakeholders: the concept of ‘Capital’ might appeal to policy makers, the “Social” draws favour from people themselves. This is regardless of any definition being applied.
Your work is enabling me to consider the interpretations and to build a hopefully reasoned argument as to how we might consider SC as currency for those making policy and those affected by it.
Extremely useful with an attempt to be balanced – many thanks.
Hi Tristan-
I’m working on a thesis involving whether the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) has been effective in reducing challenges (appeals/litigation) to USFS & BLM forest restoration projects. Particularly, I’m seeking to ground CFLRP in the Social Capital literature. I thought that since you had originally been interested in applying the theory to natural resources, that you might have some expertise in this area.
Great website by the way…I’m bookmarking it.
Thanks and I look forward to your reply.
Thanks for your kind comments. I certainly have some strong views about the social capital consequences of projects (see my recently published work on the integration of social capital and participation for some examples). I think that way in which a lot of projects are conducted results in very poor utilisation of social capital and in many cases severely damages future utilisation of local social capital.
I’d be interested to discuss this with you further.
excellent researh work congrats
im helping a colleague for her assingment on social capital n code of ethics
i hold a simple diploma in social work from the university of mauritius n working as asenior social security officer in the ministry of social security