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.
Tristan taught environmental science courses at the University of the Sunshine Coast from 2004 to 2013 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.
Tristan is actively researching in the field of social capital and is still intently interested in the concept and its application after over 20 years researching in the field. Tristan welcomes comments, questions, and input into this website.
