Social Capital Fundamentals - Essay Example

? | Word Limit: 2523 12 MAY TOPIC: SOCIAL CAPITAL Candi ment I hereby declare that this assignment is my own work and any use of materials from other sources has been referenced accordingly. Candidate Signature: Date: Tutor Statement I hereby confirm that this assignment, to the best of my knowledge, is the candidates own work and they have not collaborated in the production of this assignment with any other person. I also confirm that I have a record of this candidate’s progress tutorial/s. Tutor Signature: Date: Table of Content Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………4 Social capital…………………………………………………………………………………...…4 Methodologies for measuring social capital………………………………………………………8 Social issue in relation with Social capital………………………………………………………11 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………....13 Introduction Social capital values the social network, makes the social bond between the similar people and bridges the gap between the diverse people through the reciprocity norms. Most of the scholars have said that social capital is the goodwill that people has towards us and thus it is a valuable resource. The study has discussed about the concept of social capital and its significance in the present time. The study discusses that social capital can only be gained through individual social relations with other people or groups. Through the help of different methodologies, its analyzed that in what manner the social capital can be considered, measured and how important it is for individual or group to retain. By explaining social capital the researcher has focused on its effects that flow through the available information, influence, and solidarity that is available with the individual. The main fundamental point is that how people interact with each other that formulate the social capital. Through the help of example on the social issue it has been explored how important is social capital in society and how social issues are interlinked with social capital. The study has been framework to discuss about every aspect of social capital and revealed its effectiveness on individual. Social capital The term social capital has been highly popular in the recent years and has been associated with several features related to the policy making central to public issues and policy making. Referring to the factors related to the topic the features like norms and networks, trust, corruption, economic growth and good government needs to be discussed. The term social capital can be defined as the ability of individuals and groups to work together for a common cause in groups and organizations (Smith 2009). Social Capital includes relationships, institutions, and different norms that provide structure to quantity and quality of social interaction of the society. Increasing number of evidences has shown that social cohesion is very important for the societies in order to prosper economically and for maintaining sustainability in the development. Social capital is not just a group of institutions rather it a glue that holds the groups together. There are two concepts related to Social capital: Horizontal links Social capital is regarded as set of horizontal links among the people that covers the social networks and linked norms that has impacted the productivity of the community and well being. Social network can even enhance the productivity through reducing the business costs and it also facilities the cooperation and coordination. In the horizontal link the Social capital has networks or groups, parochial communities, and secluded, functioning at the cross-purpose to the combined interest of the society and even hinder the social and economic development. Vertical and Horizontal Links Social capital accounts to positive and negative aspects that are included in the vertical and horizontal links among the people and it even includes the behavior inside and outside the organizations. It recognizes that horizontal ties are very important for providing the intellect of character and common goal, but it even focuses that devoid of linking the ties different communal divides and horizontal ties can become the narrow interests (Adger 2003). The most encompassing and broadest views of the social capital includes about the political and social atmosphere that structures the social arrangement and even lead to development of norms. Social and political environment analysis increases the importance of the social capital in the dignified relationships and structures like, political administration, government, rule of law, civil and political liberties, and court system. This view doesn’t only accounts to the vices and qualities of the social capital and significance of the forging connection in and across the communities, but it also recognizes that competence of different social groups to proceed in the favor that depends critically on the hold that they are able to accept from the circumstances along with the private sector (Franke 2005). The condition also depends over the social firmness and includes worldwide support. In brief social and economic progress starts at the point when the state legislature, civil and corporate sector make the forums which they could explore and follow the general goals. As per the survey conducted in UK farm which is the producer of soft fruits the network of friendship between the co-workers was analyzed that shows social capital significantly affects the performance of workers at the work place. The below figure has shown the social ties among the workers at work place which was less in pre-existing social ties, then next figure shows the new social ties that were formulated at work place and then last figures shows the social network at workplace (What is Social Capital? 2011). Methodologies for measuring and evaluating social capital Social capital can be calculated through several new ways for different reasons in order to obtain the accurate measure which is not even desirable and possible. The broad definition of the social capital is multi-dimensional that incorporates wide units and levels of the analysis, next is the effort for measuring the properties of essential indefinite concepts like network, organization and community is equally challenging, and last is the few long standing surveys that are designed for measuring the social capital that leaves the modern researchers to include indexes from the range of relevant items like, voting trends, memberships in civic organizations, trust in government, and hours spent in volunteering. Measurement of social capital is not easy, but it is not possible and different researches also have recognized helpful resources related to social capital, with the use of various types and combination comparative, qualitative, and quantitative methodologies (Li, Savage and Pickles 2003). In the current years the number of international and government organizations have embark over the initiatives on social capital research, but their position with respect to key conceptual models that dominate the research field is not explicit always. It is quite difficult to explore the main approaches and ways through which concepts are operation and their selection of measurement tools. Each selected approach is linked with certain public policies which are at priority. For measuring the social capital qualitative methods can be used, as methods are very important in assessing the phenomenon, according to the social science researchers. Distinctive skills linked with the each approach along with resources and limited time, means only one approach is appropriate for the particular study. For adequately understand the development issues and for setting the basis of firm under which project is drawn and recommendations are provided for the policies, data that provides both specific “depth” obtained through qualitative method and “breadth” which is obtained through quantitative methods. Social capital is the complex issue that gains benefit through the rational combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches (Robison, Schmid and Siles 2002). Quantitative Methods Quantitative methods is the effective method for measuring the social capital as it refers to the standard questionnaires that is managed to the households and individuals that are explored through the different forms of sampling which is usually random sampling. Through sampling method results derived are considered as comparable, representative, and generalized to the large population. Through providing group of explored conditions, quantitative data supports in setting the correlation between the outcome and variables. Quantitative data must allow others to authenticate the original findings through replicating the analysis independently. Through rest of the steps that are removed from the individuals to whom the information or data was obtained, and by gathering and reviewing the data in the numerical format, quantitative methods are projected to support empirically accurate, unbiased, and research standards objectives. Strengths of the quantitative research can also become its weakness. The important characteristics of communities and people that are both rich and poor, example, beliefs, identities, and perceptions cannot be reduced adequately or understood without the reference provided in local context in which people resides (Dudwick, Kuehnast, Jones and Woolcock 2006). Under this method, most of the surveys are created far from those places where the survey will be administered and; therefore, it lean to reflect the biases and preconception of researcher, as foreign researchers set research parameters, which is unlikely to get exposed to the innovative or new discoveries. But good surveys usually undergo different rounds of pre-testing; questions which are prepared in this survey are based on the insights of the field. Effective quantitative research includes large size of sample (large sample of households). Lack of resources sometimes forms the large scale research impossible. Usually in developing countries government, public services providers, and nongovernmental organizations lack skills and resources that are required for evaluating quantitative. In these cases qualitative methods is used with small sample size. Qualitative Methods Qualitative methods include the data collection range and techniques for conducting analysis that use the open-ended, semi-structured, and purposive sampling interviews. These techniques are used for producing and analyzing the textual data that for approving the in-depth analysis of political, social, and economic processes. Qualitative methods value and include experimental learning into the analysis of the failures and success of developments; therefore through this method poverty and other issues could be studied from the outside tends for favoring the technical expertise. This method is useful in measuring the complex issues related to causality, context, and process (Narayan and Cassidy 2001). Under this method focus group discussion and open-ended questioning allows the participants to explore and note their priorities from the restrictions’ of the researcher and assumptions. It also allows the researcher to explore the diverse groups of people that support there different perspectives in the community, as the social capital is relational as it exists among the people and ask them to respond to certain questions and hypothetical situations that yield data which is derived from surveys. Qualitative methods such as, priority rankings, focus groups, and institution mapping is suitable for the social capital research, as social capital can be pragmatic during these exercises. Sometimes, social capital can be enhanced through the focus group work. Qualitative data collection and analysis process can share research ownership and outcome among the researcher and community that ceases the respondents, but it drives the process. There are some marginalized communities who has small sample size such as, victims of domestic abuse and sex workers that means there experiences and views can be captured in survey that is based on the random sampling. In some situations where government has suspicion about the quantitative surveys, in that case qualitative method is used for assessing the issues related to social capital. The limitations of both the qualitative and quantitative method can be removed through the triangulation method. Quantitative data gets the benefits from the comparison with the data derived from qualitative data. It is important that qualitative data can be cross checked through the quantitative findings. Social issue in relation with Social capital Society has to bear the social and financial cost for the crime and other issues of anti-social behavior. All these cost is incurred by the society in order to prevent the crime and for providing the infrastructure for justice, for repairing the damage criminal, supporting the victims, and for dealing with the offenders. High rate of crime can even reduce the social resources like confidence, community trust, and freedom. Due to crime fear can be spread in climate and overwhelm it or even reinstate the fortitude of cooperation and community life participation (social capital and social wellbeing 2002). The important factor is perception of safety within the community that underpins the healthy and vibrant community. Similarly crime is an indicator of societal dysfunction level. Most of the researcher suggests that communities that share the value and norms, and where good informal social network operates into the neighbor, through this way community can enjoy the reduction in criminal level. For encouraging the people perception of the safety within the community is very important for making people feel confident in taking part in activities in their communities like, cultural activities, sports, and recreation. Within the community the social network supports in mediating the relationship among the crime and poverty with the help of social institutions that covers family to sports clubs, religious community, and schools. Link between the social capital and the safer neighborhood along with the reduction in crime rate can be suggested through the evidence. According to the criminal report generated in U.S. it was founded that in United States the social capital is high and has low rate of homicide. Report presented by the OECD in 2011 suggested that casual link is formulated between the violent crime, inequality, and social distrust. Dignity, self-esteem, and social status are damaged by the social exclusion; social ties, poverty, and trust are damaged with the consequences in crime relation. Other researches has highlighted that community participation for mediating the crime rate is low in local areas that has high participation level in the community related activities. Participation in the local organizations leads to the increase in the social interaction opportunity that enhances the ability of community to work together in local problem solution, provide informal social control for reducing the local crime, release of common values, and increase in the ability of the community in achieving the improvement in public safety level. Stakeholders along with the responsibilities in the policy era like to gain knowledge about the associated factors with the anti-social behavior like child abuse, crime, and youth at risk. There is also great interest in how the social capital level within the community relates to this behavior. Stakeholders are even interested in how social capital level is related with the perception of safety for individual within the community (Social capital, human capital and health what is the evidence 2010). The data of social capital supports by providing the knowledge related with community safety and crime that is helpful in providing the data that guide and even increases the delivery of service and then contributes into the operational strategies of policies and these are used for targeting the strategies for education. Social capital data complement the presently available data of socio-economic level and even has the capacity if able to cross classified through the safety and crime data. Trust theme is important for the stakeholders in the portfolio area in the justice and crime; this is in trust in the institutions like police, public confidence in the programs of police like trust in the justice system and community policing. Through the confidence level in these institutions it will assist the implementation and design of different pro-active policing and educational programs. These strategies are linked with the objectives of policy like increase in safety of community confidence, and confidence in accessing the legal services. Conclusion It can be summarized from the overall study that social capital is the integral part of the social network that helps in creating the social bonding between the people having similar nature. In the study the social capital has been measured through the help of two methods which are: quantitative and qualitative. The application of social capital is explained through the help of social issues based on the crime prevailing in society. This issue is taken in the study in order to show the relation between the social capital and social issue. References Adger, W. N. 2003. Social Capital, Collective Action, and Adaptation to Climate Change. Economic Geography. 79(4), pp. 387-404. Dudwick, N., Kuehnast, K., Jones, V. N and Woolcock, M. 2006. ANALYZING SOCIAL CAPITAL IN CONTEXT: A Guide to Using Qualitative Methods and Data. USA: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/the World Bank. Franke, S. 2005. Measurement of Social Capital Reference Document for Public Policy Research, Development, and Evaluation. Canada: Policy Research Initiative. Li, Y., Savage, M and Pickles, A. 2003. Social capital and social exclusion in England and Wales (1972–1999). British Journal of Sociology. 54(4), pp. 497-526. Narayan, D and Cassidy, M. F. 2001. A Dimensional Approach to Measuring Social Capital: Development and Validation of a Social Capital Inventory. Current Sociology. 49(2), pp. 60-102. Robison, L. J., Schmid, A. A and Siles, M. E. 2002. “ Is Social Capital Really Capital?” Review of Social Economy. 60(1), pp. 1-21. Smith, M. K. 2009. Social capital. [Online]. Available at: http://www.infed.org/biblio/social_capital.htm [Accessed on: 12 May 2012]. Social capital and social wellbeing. 2002. [Online]. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/2/30/2380806.pdf [Accessed on: 12 May 2012]. Social capital, human capital and health what is the evidence? 2010. [Online]. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/40/24/45760738.pdf [Accessed on: 12 May 2012]. What is Social Capital? 2011. [Online]. Available at: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/EXTTSOCIALCAPITAL/0,,contentMDK:20185164~menuPK:418217~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:401015,00.html [Accessed on: 12 May 2012]. Read More