Social Capital
The third form of capital, social capital, is basically who and how many people you know. According to Ron Burt:
The player (actor) has social capital: relationships with other players...friends, colleagues, and more general contacts through whom you receive opportunities to use your financial and human capitalStructural Holes; the Social Structure of Competition(Boston, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992, pp. 8-9).Burt goes on to elaborate:
The social capital of people aggregates into the social capital of organizations. In a firm providing services--for example, advertising, brokerage, or consulting--there are people valued for their ability to deliver a quality product. Then there are the 'rainmakers,' valued for their ability to deliver clients. Those who deliver the product do the work, and the rainmakers make it possible for all to profit from the work. The former represent the financial and human capital of the firm. The latter represents it social capital. More generally, property and human assets define the firm's production capabilities. Relations within and beyond the firm are social capital.Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, says:
Social capital is a concept developed in sociology and also used in business, economics, organizational behaviour, political science, public health and natural resources management that refers to connections within and between social networks as well as connections among individuals. Though there are a variety of related definitions, which have been described as "something of a cure-all" for the problems of modern society, they tend to share the core idea "that social networks have value. Just as a screwdriver (physical capital) or a college education (human capital) can increase productivity (both individual and collective), so too social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups".I'm going to have more say on all three of these forms of capital.
What do you think about this? How's your social capital? Are you flush with it? Post a comment.
Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com./blog and for entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com
Labels: Ron Burt, Social Capital
posted by Curtis 4tet Guy @ 6:57 AM
3 Comments:
Great post, Tim. Too often, definitions of social capital are overly academic. I like how you've brought it down to common terms, that it's "basically who and how many people you know." But I would say that it's not really capital until it gives you the capacity for action.
For example, from your post we see that Ron Burt says "through whom you receive opportunities to use your financial and human capital...".
I couldn't agree more. Unless you receive these opportunities, then it's just social. It become actual capital when there's a capacity for action, or as Ron puts it "opportunity."
As for how to develop social capital, the way to create those opportunities and build relationships often just boils down to getting people to feel cared for. That's what I just wrote about in this post titled Developing Social Capital: Why Should I Care How You Feel?
I'm looking forward to your ongoing thoughts on the subject.
yes all looks good...
but this is better..... Creating an affiliate website for bluehost.can think of a domain name?
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