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General articles about social capital and related concepts including its research and operationalisation. Research on social capital is relevant to a wide range of discipline areas including sociology, social policy, political science, economics, etc.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented interruption to physical social interaction. A significant proportion of the world’s population is in some form of isolation or lockdown, with limited access to normal social activities. This has serious implications for social capital which is primarily built, maintained and realised by social interaction. Social capital is linked to […]
Why has COVID-19 become a pandemic? There are lots of other pathogens that have not become so prevalent. Why has this virus rapidly spread to people virtually everywhere on earth with little resistance? With all our resources, scientific understanding, and communication technologies how have we failed so emphatically? We have 21st century scientific understanding of […]
Social capitalism is any capitalist system that is structured with the ideology of liberty, equality, and justice. Instead of aiming to accumulate only economic forms of capital, it explicitly values all forms of capital, including social capital, human capital, and natural capital. Instead of maximising profit for the 1%, it involves profit maximisation for all […]
With the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring COVID-19 a pandemic, many people are now facing the prospect of various forms of social isolation in the immediate future. People are being encouraged to maintain physical distance from others to limit the spread of the virus. Some countries have implemented lockdowns that include banning public gatherings, cancelling […]
There are significant barriers to the effective adoption of technology to alleviate social isolation resulting from COVID-19 ‘social distancing’, particularly among those people who were already socially isolated. The barriers most cited in the literature on the use of technology to remedy social isolation are (i) lack of support and training to use technology, (ii) […]
Export Reference Download PDF Print A social sanction is a social reaction of approval or disapproval in response to someone’s actions. Social sanctions enforce a standard of behaviour that is deemed socially acceptable and this is essential for society to regulate itself and maintain order. Social cohesion and cooperation depend on social sanctions and they […]
China is developing a social credit system (SCS), a national reputation system that aims to promote the traditional virtues of integrity, discourage dishonesty, and build an environment of trust. The SCS will utilise big-data enabled surveillance infrastructure to manage, monitor, and predict the trustworthiness of citizens, firms, organizations, and governments. The scheme has attracted considerable […]
There are a lot of similarities between the concepts of social capital and social cohesion. Both are defined in vastly different ways by different authors, both are conceptually vague, and both relate to social setting and social structure. Depending on how you define the concepts there can be considerable overlap between them, leading some authors […]
Social capital is a vital asset for those in poverty since it can provide access to that which is lacking: capital. Poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the capital required to meet their needs. Clearly the poor would benefit from more of all forms of capital. However, social […]
In 2004 I wrote an article about the definitions of social capital and included a table of definitions from Adler & Kwon (2002). The article is still one of the most popular online, which is evidence that definition continues to be a challenging area for newcomers to social capital. Now, 15 years later, I was […]