Social capital : an international research program

For two decades, a significant number of scholars have subscribed to a common definition of social capital (resources embedded in social networks), employed a standard measurement (the position generator methodology), and conducted original research. Their sustained efforts have demonstrated the power of the concept of social capital in diverse arenas of research and varied cultural and societal settings. Their work has contributed to the substantiation, development, and expansion of social capital as a key scientific concept and theory. This book presents an introduction to some of the most recent work in the area. The volume editors have brought together scholars in North America, Europe, and East Asia to offer original and accessible reports of their own research studies. Covering both methodological and substantive issues, they demonstrate the continued importance of social capital as a guiding concept and theory in social sciences today.

• 1. Theory, Measurement, and the Research Enterprise on Social Capital
• PART I: THE POSITION GENERATOR METHODOLOGY: ITS RELIABILITY, VALIDITY AND VARIATION
• 2. Position generator measures and their relationship to other Social Capital measures
• 3. Position Generator and Actual Networks in Everyday Life: An Evaluation with Contact Diary
• 4. Social, cultural, and economic capital and job attainment: The position generator as a measure of cultural and economic resources
• 5. The Formation of Social Capital among Chinese Urbanites: Theoretical Explanation and Empirical Evidence
• PART II: MOBILIZATION OF SOCIAL CAPITAL
• 6. The Invisible Hand of Social Capital: An Exploratory Study
• 7. Social Resources and their effect on occupational attainment through the life course
• 8. A Question of Access or Mobilization? Understanding Inefficacious Job Referral Networks among the Black Poor
• PART III: SOCIAL CAPITAL, CIVIL ENGAGEMENT, SOCIAL PARTICIPATION, AND TRUST
• 9. 9. Social Networks of Participants in Voluntary Associations
• 10. The Internet, Social Capital, Civic Engagement, and Gender in Japan
• 11. Social Capital of Personnel Managers: the Causes and Return of Position-Generated Networks and the Participation in Voluntary Associations
• 12. It's Not Only Who You Know, It's Also Where They Are: Using the Position 12. Generator to Investigate the Structure of Access to Embedded Resources
• 13. Gender, Network Capital, Social Capital and Political Capital: The Consequences of Personal Network Diversity for Environmentalists in British Columbia.
• 14. Civic Participation and Social Capital: A Social Network Analysis in Two American Counties
• PART IV: SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND INEQUALITY IN SOCIAL CAPITAL
• 15. Marriage, Gender, and Social Capital
• 16. Access to Social Capital and Status Attainment in the United States: Racial/Ethnic and Gender Differences
• 17. Access to social capital and the structure of inequality in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
• 18. Assessing Social Capital and Attainment Dynamics - position-generator (pg)-applications in Hungary, 1987-2003
• References
• Index