Social Capital
Contents
Main
Social Capital has been defined in different ways but most commonly as the sum of resources available through connection to others through social ties in one’s network. Adding a power dimension to networks allows for a perspective of inequality due to different amounts of social resources at different positions in the social structure.
Conceptualizations
Social Capital in Economics of Science
Social capital in the Economics of Science describes networks related to power and political exchange. Social capital ties with senior disciplinary figures who control selection procedures is associated with career advance in Italy (Pezzoni et al., 2012[1]). In France social capital ties with colleagues in prestigious PSOs is associated with career advance (Pezzoni et al., 2012[1]).
Social Capital in Scientific and Technical Human Capital
Social capital in STHC is defined along two dimensions:
- The institutional setting of the network partner (firm, NGO, Govt institute, etc.)
- Role of the partner (entrepreneur, colleague, funding agency, etc.)
These dimensions combine into the social capital network. In terms of the formal analysis of a social capital network, insights from Social Network Analysis (SNA; Burt, 1992[2]; Granovetter, 1973[3]) also show that the configuration of extended network roles in terms of centrality, density and brokerage can also affect the resources that are available to an individual. Positioning within networks thus has career implications as well. The most important parts of the social capital network are the ‘knowledge value collectives’ in which a researcher is involved. Knowledge value collectives (KVCs) are a ‘set of individuals connected by their uses of a body of scientific and technical knowledge’ and are smaller and less durable than scientific disciplines (Bozeman & Rogers, 2002, p. 777[4]). The basis for choices of research questions or collaborators in the S&T human capital model may thus be somewhat different to that in a model of disciplinary peer communities.
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Pezzoni, M., Sterzi, V. & Lissoni, F. (2012). Career Progress in Centralized Academic Systems: Social Capital and Institutions in France and Italy. Research Policy 41(4), 704–719. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2011.12.009
- ↑ Burt, R.S. (1992). Structural holes: the social structure of competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- ↑ Granovetter, M.S. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology 78, 1360–1380.
- ↑ Bozeman, B. & Rogers, J. D. (2002). A Churn Model of Scientific Knowledge Value: Internet Researchers as a Knowledge Value Collective. Research Policy 31(5), 769–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0048-7333(01)00146-9
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Social and Cultural Dynamics
