Social capital: a good concept gone bad?
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Date
2014-01-14
Authors
Kalischuk, Alison
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Abstract
As a result of increased interest in the benefit of ties with others, researchers have been exploring the idea of social capital with increasing frequency over the past two decades (Portes, 1998). Although the volume of literature has accumulated and its application expanded, there has been a proliferation of misguided or poorly conceptualized social capital research (Portes, 2000; Furstenberg, 2005). This has not only affected its vigour (Portes, 1998), but has problematized its measurement. Although conceptualizing and defining have been heavily debated through the years, the issue of its measurement has received little more than casual scholarly recognition. Drawing on the works of Charles Lachenmeyer, this thesis offers a unique approach that merges dimensions of social capital measurement with aspects of “good” scientific practices to systematically review a sample of academic articles. Results suggest that assessments of the concept are problematized by article crafting and research-based problems.
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Keywords
social capital, content analysis