Tristan Claridge
Tristan Claridge has a passion for technology, innovation and teaching. He is an academic and entrepreneur, and he uses his cross-discipline knowledge and experience to solve problems and identify opportunities. He has bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Queensland in Australia. He has qualifications in environmental science, social theory, teaching and research, and business management.
Tristan is dedicated to the application of social capital theory to organisations. His diverse experience in teaching, research, and business has given him a unique perspective on organisational social capital and the potential improvements that can be achieved in any organisation.
Social capital measurement problems
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Conducting Researching?
Are you conducting researching on social capital? Are you a research student or academic? You may be interested in the International Social Capital Association (ISCA).
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For more than 10 years I have been following the literature on social capital measurement, and hoping that someone will publish a thorough synthesis and analysis of measurement techniques to produce at least a good guide to its measurement in different contexts.
I suspect this is a (near) impossible task given the commonly discussed problems with conceptualising and measuring social capital.
In the absence of such work researchers tend to identify the important elements or factors that suit their research context and develop their own instrument.
This is very effective in most cases as long as the researcher has sufficient understanding to develop an instrument informed by theory, and the ability to be critical of the potential for the instrument to make assumptions about the connection between the proxies being investigated and the elements of social capital.
This is not always the case given that many social capital researchers are approaching the concept from other disciplines and may lack awareness of these issues, which are common in social science research.
I would like to attempt a conceptually informed guide to social capital measurement one day.
Is this of interest to anyone?
About the Author
Tristan Claridge
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