Social Capital

by John Field

The term 'social capital' is a way of defining the intangible resources of community, shared values and trust upon which we draw in daily life. It has achieved considerable international currency across the social sciences through the very different work of Pierre Bourdieu in France and James Coleman and Robert Putnam in the United States, and has been widely taken up within politics and sociology as an explanation for the decline in social cohesion and community values in western societies. It has also been adopted by policy makers, particularly in international governmental bodies such as the World Bank.



This fully revised second edition of Social Capital provides a thorough overview of the intense and fast-moving debate surrounding this subject. This clear and comprehensive introduction explains the theoretical underpinning of the subject, the empirical work that has been done to explore its operation, and the influence that it has had on public policy and practice. It includes guides to further reading and a list of the most important websites.

Genres: Sociology, Cultural Studies

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2002

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

This is John^^^Field, where ^=space.

About the Author:
John Field is Professor of Lifelong Learning at the University of Stirling. Previously he was a Professor and Chair of Department at the University of Warwick. He is an established researcher in sociological approaches to the life course and learning. He served on RAE panels in 2001 and 2008, was seconded to the Government Office for Science’s Foresight project on Wellbeing and Mental Capital in 2008-2009, and has served two periods as Stirling’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for research.

Reviews

[Blyden · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cliff notes for the person who has never heard of social capital and wants a foundation in it. There isn't much hear that you couldn't get either much faster from other sources, including some online ones. And the quality of this review is such that you are probably better off reading the original articles that it overviews, if you want an in-depth understanding.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A useful basic, accessible book on social capital

[Harman · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting book, with perspective of bordieu, putnam and coleman this author make me realize that social capital is one of the most important thing that we can use in our social life. conceptualization of social capital is about networking and making many friends that we can, its socializing.

[Rich]

Badly written book on an important concept

[Nrtashi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry.

[Adam Cless · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good fundamental book on the concepts of social capital and connection.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good primer