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Leading scholars in the field of social networks from diverse disciplines present the first systematic and comprehensive collection of current theories and empirical research on the informal connections that individuals have for support, help, and information from other people. Expanding on concepts originally formulated by Pierre Bourdieu and James Coleman, this seminal work will find an essential place with educators and students in the fields of social networks, rational choice theory, institutions, and the socioeconomics of poverty, labor markets, social psychology, and race.
The volume is divided into three parts. The first segment clarifies social capital as a concept and explores its theoretical and operational bases. Additional segments provide brief accounts that place the development of social capital in the context of the family of capital theorists, and identify some critical but controversial perspectives and statements regarding social capital in the literature. The editors then make the argument for the network perspective, why and how such a perspective can clarify controversies and advance our understanding of a whole range of instrumental and expressive outcomes.
Social Capital further provides a forum for ongoing research programs initiated by social scientists working at the crossroads of formal theory and new methods. These scholars and programs share certain understandings and approaches in their analyses of social capital. They argue that social networks are the foundation of social capital. Social networks simultaneously capture individuals and social structure, thus serving as a vital conceptual link between actions and structural constraints, between micro- and macro-level analyses, and between relational and collective dynamic processes. They are further cognizant of the dual significance of the "structural" features of the social networks and the "resources" embedded in the networks as defining elements of social capital.
List of contents
Part I. Social Capital: Networks and Embedded Resources 1 Building a Network Theory of Social Capital 2 Structural Holes versus Network Closure as Social Capital 3 The Position Generator: Measurement Techniques for Investigations of Social Capital Part II. Social Capital in the Labor Market 4 How Much Is That Network Worth? Social Capital in Employee Referral Networks 5 Interpersonal Ties, Social Capital, and Employer Staffing Practices 6 Good Networks and Good Jobs: The Value of Social Capital to Employers and Employees 7 Getting Started: The Influence of Social Capital on the Start of the Occupational Career Part III: Social Capital in Organizational, Community, and Institutional Settings 8 Social Capital as Social Mechanisms and Collective Assets: The Example of Status Auctions among Colleagues 9 Social Networks and Social Capital in Extreme Environments 10 Network Capital in a Multilevel World: Getting Support from Personal Communities 11 Guanxi Capital and Social Eating in Chinese Cities: Theoretical Models and Empirical Analyses 12 Change and Stability in Social Network Resources: The Case of Hungary under Transformation
About the author
Nan Lin (Edited by) Karen Cook (Edited by) Ronald S. Burt (Edited by)
Summary
Leading scholars in the field of social networks from diverse disciplines present the first systematic and comprehensive collection of current theories and empirical research on the informal connections that individuals have for support, help, and information from other people
