engleski

Introduction to Social Capital: Definitions, Conceptualizations, Applications

The introductory part of the lecture reviews general definitions of social capital with a relative level of consensus among scholars and also compares and distinguishes social capital from other forms of capital. Further on, a short history of the term preceding its famous sociological conceptualizations is addressed together with a short review of different meanings of social capital and controversies concerning the “capital” part of the term. In the following part, a general overview of different definitions and most frequently quoted sociological conceptualizations of social capital is given, including those of Pierre Bourdieu and James Coleman as originators of the concept. Main sociological conceptualizations are compared to other usages of the term, particularly to Putnam’s popularization of social capital and its “export” into political and other social sciences and public policy – translating it into a collective trait, and increasing its conceptual and analytical ambiguity. The following part of the lecture addresses some of the salient issues and controversies in differing conceptualizations of social capital, as identified by Nan Lin (1999). Another aspect of criticism concerns prevailing celebratory view of social capital in its relational variant and is illustrated by Portes’ identification of negative or downsides of social capital (Portes, 1998 ; Portes and Landolt, 1996 ; Portes and Sensenbrenner, 1993) and Lin’s (2000) research agenda for gender and ethnic based inequalities in social capital. Finally, if conceptualized in its relational variant as social networks and embedded resources (Lin, 2003 ; Portes, 2000) there is more chance that social capital will turn from a possible fad into a fundamental concept (Ostrom, 2000).

concept of social capital; individual social capital; collective social capital; negative social capital; disparate conceptualizations of social capital

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