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Introduces a collection of essays devoted to shedding light on those facets of social & political institutions that influence the development of social capital. Focusing on the attitudinal components of the social capital complex, it is argued that a complete understanding of the concept of social capital requires a better understanding of society- & institutional-centered approaches. An overview of social capital touches on its benefits, consequences, & conditions that facilitate its growth or destruction. Three reasons why this volume is addressing the factors behind social capital's generation or destruction are offered: (1) It allows a confrontation with one of the major shortcomings in current social capital research. (2) Developing a second causal mechanism for social capital generation will provide an answer to one of the main critiques against current social capital concepts. (3) A full examination of the origins & nature of social capital will allow conclusions to be drawn on its rise & decline. The collection's themes are identified & the contributions briefly summarized. 34 References. J. Zendejas

This paper provides a sociological overview of the concept of social capital and explores how it is related to the notion of health. The theoretical section of the study addresses the issue of an operational definition of social capital and conducts detailed analysis of the dimensions and forms of the concept that stand out in terms of importance in the field of health research. It also takes into consideration the most significant causal mechanisms identified between social capital and health outcomes. The empirical part of the paper features analysis of data on the connection between social capital and self-perceived health, collected during the first survey conducted in Italy by the Osservatorio sulle Strategie di Consumo delle Famiglie (Observatory on Consumption Strategies in the Family). The survey shows that community social capital, generally expressed in terms of family trust, may, depending on the subject's social milieu of origin, not play any role in determining the level of self-perceived health in Italy. Alternatively, it may play either of two roles, acting as a multiplier or a substitute with regard to positive causal processes determined by parameters of a socio-demographic nature.

The study described in this article has three objectives. The first is to describe female entrepreneurship as a construct based on entrepreneurial personality characteristics, the properties of sociocultural entrepreneurship and gender roles. The second objective is to demonstrate the differences between migrant and non-migrant female entrepreneurship in terms of the aforementioned variables as components of the construct in addition to push and pull factors and social capital. Finally, the third objective is to predict high and low levels of social capital among female entrepreneurs according to the variables present in the realm of female entrepreneurship. The research was conducted among 304 female entrepreneurs in Mersin, Turkey. The data are analysed using correlational analysis, ANOVA and logistic regression analysis. The most striking finding is the higher social capital predicted by migrant status resulting from stronger personal contacts and the sociocultural properties of their respective communities. Additionally, age, professional training and work experience were also tied to higher social capital of entrepreneurs. In contrast, non-migrant status, entrepreneurial personality characteristics and pull factors predicted lower social capital.

Even though voluntary sport organizations make up the largest part of the voluntary sector in many western countries, few studies have been carried out focusing on sport as part of civil society. Against this background, the aim of the article is to study how voluntary sport organizations operate and what social and political effects they might have through the concept of social capital. The theoretical part of the article identifies the most useful dimensions of the social-capital concept for this topic, lists hypotheses and suggests three relevant social mechanisms. Empirical studies show how social capital related to participation in voluntary sport organizations is distributed and the consequences this has for various forms of social capital: generalized trust and political commitments. Analyses are based on Norwegian data. The results show that being a member of a voluntary sport organization involves social capital which is conducive to generalized trust and political commitment. Yet, the effect of sport organizations is weaker than for voluntary organizations in general, stronger when membership in sport organizations goes together with other memberships (more weak ties) and stronger the less politicized the social effect in question.

We offer a critical review of the concepts and principles of social capital and social networks as applied to entrepreneurship. Our review is intended for junior scholars and graduate students in the field of entrepreneurship who wish to learn the basic vocabulary of social network and social capital analyses. We illustrate several interesting research questions and a toolbox of methods to answer them. First, we use a popular new website, Friendster, to show the potential power of social capital accessed via social networks. Then, we show that the potential of social networks often cannot be realized because of various socio-cultural constraints. Taking account of these constraints, we offer three empirical generalizations about social networks and show how the concepts of homophily, social boundaries, and bounded rationality provide a framework for understanding the observations. As we discuss each generalization, we discuss some well-established theoretical contributions and empirical findings from the social capital and social networks literatures. Throughout the text we explain various research designs for studying social networks and issues raised in trying to use them. We conclude by noting the tension between the properties of social networks used in entrepreneurship researchers' models and the limited perspective on networks available to practicing entrepreneurs

Debates around the concept of social capital are often also debates about the level at which social capital can be abstracted for analytical use. Yet while many theorists and commentators involved in these debates implicitly discuss the issue of abstraction it is rarely done explicitly. In this article I attempt to overcome this missing link in the social capital literature by theoretically examining the 'social' in 'social capital' through interconnected levels of abstraction. In particular, and at a high level of abstraction, I argue that social capital is underpinned by a contradictory relationship associated with what I term as 'isolated reciprocity'. At lower levels of abstraction I show how isolated reciprocity poses problems for the establishment of 'good' social capital in the UK.

Social capital is in danger of going the way of political culture—a potentially powerful concept that is given many different meanings by many different people for many different purposes. This article starts by picking out three different aspects or dimensions of the concept—norms (especially trust), networks, and consequences. It then considers three models of social capital and the forms of trust and democracy associated with them. Finally it discusses the role of voluntary associations as a foundation for social capital, arguing that their importance may be overstated in the classical Tocquevillean model of the 19th century, and that, in any case, modern democracy may be increasingly based on different forms of trust and association.

In knowledge economy, companies and organizations build sustainable competitive advantages not only relying on their internal intellectual capital but also on the intellectual capital of other companies, organizations and institutions and specifically on those of the cluster, microcluster or territory where the company is located. This kind of intellectual capital, basically external and of a relational nature is one of the main constituents of the networked organization and from now on will be called as Social Capital because it is embedded in the social fabric (texture) of the nearby environment. Social Capital Benchmarking System is both a new management method and a new management tool, that identifies, audits and benchmarks the resources and capabilities or the social capital, existing in alternative cluster locations that are necessary to develop the specific network organization that each particular business model requires. The system has been successfully piloted in five European enterprises.

We use weekly data from 79 Russian regions to measure the impact of economic shocks and proximity to war in Ukraine on social capital in Russian regions. We proxy social capital by the relative intensity of internet searches for the most salient dimensions of pro-social behavior such as "donate blood", "charity", "adopt a child" etc. This measure of social capital is correlated with a survey-based measure of generalized social trust. Our search-based measure of social capital responds negatively to the spikes of inflation and positively to the intensity of the conflict in Ukraine (controlling for region and week fixed effects).

We use weekly data from 79 Russian regions to measure the impact of economic shocks and proximity to war in Ukraine on social capital in Russian regions. We proxy social capital by the relative intensity of internet searches for the most salient dimensions of pro-social behavior such as "donate blood", "charity", "adopt a child" etc. This measure of social capital is correlated with a survey-based measure of generalized social trust. Our search-based measure of social capital responds negatively to the spikes of inflation and positively to the intensity of the conflict in Ukraine (controlling for region and week fixed effects).

In this special issue ofScandinavian Political Studiesit is explored how the concept of social capital relates to the Scandinavian context. It is common knowledge that Scandinavia performs well with regard to many aspects of social capital, such as the level of trust and the density of membership in voluntary associations. Contrary to developments in the United States, there is little evidence of a decline in social capital in Scandinavia. There are thus several reasons why Scandinavia offers an especially interesting testing ground for many of the hypotheses and problems generated by social capital theory. What kind of empirical evidence do we have for the changes of social capital in Scandinavia? If high levels of social capital are indeed an important attribute of Scandinavian society, how can such high levels be maintained? What is the relation between, on the one hand, social capital in the form of norms about reciprocity and, on the other hand, the Social Democratic type of encompassing and universal welfare state? Is there something special about the types of mechanisms that are behind the abundance and maintenance of social capital in Scandinavia? It is argued that the high level of social capital in the Scandinavian countries can be explained by (a) the high degree of economic equality, (b) the low level of patronage and corruption and (c) the predominance of universal non‐discriminating welfare programmes.

Abstract This paper sets forth an interdisciplinary interpretation of social capital that will permit the concept to be used with precision in scholarly and scientific work. If the interpretation is accepted, the social capital concept cannot be regarded as a social theory, nor as a statement of normative goals. The interdisciplinary concept proposed here is applied to rural studies.