engleski

Building social capital through social networking: strategy or coincidence?

The Internet is one of the main driving forces of globalisation. It enables simple and fast access to information and provides a broad insight into various business processes. It is dialectically intertwined with new patterns of behaviour and socialization. On such basis, it alters standard approaches to Bourdieu’s social capital (Bourdieu, 1983) [1] by changing people’s communication patterns, habits, and interaction with the community. Most people directly link social capital and financial capital – the more people you know, the more money you are worth. Based on individualist theories, this kind of mindset recognises that one’s financial success is a direct measure of his or her personal efforts and ability. According to Coleman, such individualism is a “broadly accepted fiction in modern society” (Coleman, 1988) [2]. Based on quantitative research methods, this research examines the relationships between Coleman’s individualism and social capital of students at the Polytechnic of Zagreb. Following ever-increasing usage of social networking in student population, it examines the relationships between social capital created in the virtual world of Facebook and social capital in their real lives. It looks directly into the new patterns of behaviour and socialization, and inquires whether student social networks are initiated by entrepreneurial attitudes or students simply use traditional social networks for entrepreneurial purposes. Finally, it compares the found results with similar research in Croatia at Michigan State University. Based on ubiquitous logic of social networking, high levels of integration of the Polytechnic of Zagreb into European educational context, and similarities with results obtained in the USA, authors of this research are convinced that the obtained results can confidently be generalized to other higher education institutions in Croatia and abroad.

social networking; social capital; digital words; digital realities; virtual and real

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