Tristan Claridge has over 20 years experience researching and applying social capital to a wide range of contexts. He is a geographer and environmental scientist with a passion for sustainable development and poverty alleviation. He takes an interdisciplinary perspective by combining the lessons of economics, sociology, political science, psychology, urban planning and any other discipline that contributes understanding to the concept. Tristan has a Masters degree from the University of Queensland, Australia, that included environmental impact assessment, social impact assessment, social planning for development, urban planning, and natural resource management.

Before starting Social Capital Research & Training, Tristan was a university lecturer and tutor for 10 years. Early in his career, he developed a passion for teaching. To improve his teaching practice, he completed professional development courses, and putting scholarship into practice, he also contributed to research on teaching in higher education. He was part of a working group at the university researching the social context of learning. He continues to actively contribute to social capital research and has provided guidance to hundreds of researchers and research students from developed and developing countries. His publications on social capital theory are among the most accessed resources on the topic.

Tristan’s research on social capital has progressed the theoretical understanding of the concept and its implications. While deeply concerned with improving the theory, he has widely applied the concept. In addition to development and poverty alleviation, Tristan has also applied social capital theory to community development, organisational culture, leadership, and the general challenges of modernity – particularly the role of non-economic forms of capital and their transformative effects on governance.

Tristan is active in public discourse on social capital and development, giving public presentations at community events talking about social capital, behaviour change, and sustainability, including keynote presentations at youth environment conferences.

Tristan has been an active contributor to the academic debate about social capital. In addition to his over 100 open access articles on social capital and related topics he has been a reviewer for academic journals and contributed to course materials used by numerous universities around the world. He has worked on university research and conducted independent research on social capital. He is an experienced facilitator and he is an excellent trainer with many years of university teaching.

After 20 years working on social capital from both the theoretical and practical perspectives, Tristan has a deep and grounded understanding of the concept and its application. He has a broad foundation for understanding social capital from numerous discipline and industry perspectives. Tristan is able to apply complex social theory to real-world situations and reach insightful conclusions based on this extensive experience.

Tristan is actively researching and consulting in social capital and related concepts. He regularly helps people with research and practical issues, including formal and informal supervision of research students. He is actively writing and publishing on social capital. He is engaged in various consultancies including corporate and organisational social capital, leadership, community-based development, and sustainability and poverty alleviation.

If you have a question, would like to comment, or connect you can follow on Twitter @tristanclaridge, connect on LinkedIn @ Tristan Claridge or send an email to tristan.claridge@socialcapitalresearch.com