Reading Summary

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Reading Summary Coleman, J. S. 1988. Social
Capital in the Creation of Human Capital.
American Journal of Sociology, 94 S95-S120.
Lei Chi PAD637 Nov. 27, 2006
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Overview of the Paper

• Concept of social capital
• Three forms of social capital
• Obligations and expectations
• Information channels
• Social norms
• Network closure and its role in facilitating
  social capital
• Value of social capital in creating human capital
• An analysis of the effect of the lack of social
  capital to high school students on
  before-graduation dropout rate

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Concept of Social Capital
Social capital is defined by its function. It is
not a single entity but a variety of different
entities, with two elements in common they all
consist of some aspect of social structures, and
they facilitate certain actions of actors
whether persons or corporate actors within the
structure. Like other forms of capital, social
capital is productive, making possible the
achievement of certain ends that in its absence
would not be possible. Like physical capital and
human capital, social is not completely fungible
but may be specific to certain activities. A
given form of social capital that is valuable in
facilitating certain actions may be useless or
even harmful for others Unlike other forms of
capital, social capital inheres in the structure
of relations between actors and among actors.
(Coleman 1988 S98)
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Social Capital and Other Forms of Capital

• Physical capital
• Embodied in tools, machines, and other equipments
• Tangible in observable form
• Created by changes in materials to form tools
  that facilitate production
• Human capital
• Embodied in the skills and knowledge acquired by
  an individual
• Less tangible
• Created by changes in persons that bring about
  skills and capabilities that make them able to
  act in new ways
• Social capital
• Embodied in social structure of social relations
  between and among persons
• Less tangible
• Created through changes in relations among
  persons that facilitate action
• Public good quality (a key distinction between
  social capital and other forms of capital)

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Three Forms of Social Capital

• Obligations and expectations
• Depend on two elements (1) trustworthiness of
  the social structure (which means that
  obligations will be repaid), and (2) the actual
  extent of obligations held
• Social structures differ in both (1) and (2), and
  actors within the same structure differ in (2)
• Information channels
• Information-flow capability of the social
  structure
• Norms and effective sanctions
• Not only facilitates certain actions, but also
  constrains other actions
• Effective norms in an area can reduce
  innovativeness in an area, not only deviant
  actions that harm others but also deviant actions
  that can benefit everyone

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Network Closure
Network closure is one kind of social structure
that is especially important in facilitating
social capital. It is a property of social
relations on which effective norms depend.
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Open Structure vs. Closure Structure
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Intergenerational Closure
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Value of Social Capital

• Social capital is especially important in the
  creation of human capital.
• Both social capital within the family and in the
  community outside the family play important roles
  in the creation of human capital in the rising
  generation.

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Social Capital within the Family
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Social Capital outside the Family
Social capital outside the family is measured by
the intergenerational closure, which is indicated
as the number of times the child has changed
schools because the family moved.
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Social Capital outside the Family
Social capital outside the family is indicated by
the distinctions among public high schools,
religiously based private high schools and
nonreligiously based private high schools
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Public Goods Aspect of Social Capital
A property shared by most forms of social capital
that differentiates social capital from other
forms of capital is its public good aspect the
actor or actors who generate social capital
ordinarily capture only a small part of its
benefits, a fact that leads to underinvestment in
social capital.
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Summary Comparing Burts Structural Holes and
Colemans Network Closure
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Reading Summary Lin, N. 1999. Social Networks
and Status Attainment. American Review of
Sociology, 25 467-487.
Lei Chi PAD637 Nov. 27, 2006
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Overview of the Paper
Integrates social resources theory (Lin 1982,
1990) and social capital theory (Coleman 1988,
1990 Hechter 1983 Portes Senssenbrenner 1993
Putnam 1995) to develop a social capital model of
status attainment
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Social Resources Theory

• Begins with a macro-social structure consisting
  of positions ranked according to certain
  normatively valued resources, such as wealth,
  status, power.
• This structure has a pyramidal shape in terms of
  accessibility and control of such resources
• The higher the position, the fewer the occupants
  
• The higher the position, the better the view.
• The pyramidal structure suggests advantages for
  persons nearer to the top, in terms of number of
  occupants (fewer) and accessibility to positions
  (more).
• Individuals within these structural constraints
  and opportunities take actions for expressive and
  instrumental purposes (attaining status).

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Three Propositions of Social Resources Theory

• The social resources proposition that social
  resources (e.g., resources accessed in social
  networks) exert effect on the outcome of an
  instrumental action (e.g., attained status).
• The strength of position proposition that social
  resources, in turn, are affected by the original
  position of ego (as represented by parental
  resources or previous resources).
• The strength of ties proposition that social
  resources are also affected by the use of weaker
  rather than stronger ties.
• The extensity of the proposition (a variation of
  P3) that social resources are affected by
  extensity of direct and indirect ties.

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Social Capital Theory

• Social capital primarily refers to resources
  accessed in social networks.
• The theory focuses on the instrumental utility of
  such resources (capital as an investment or
  mobilization).
• The convergence of social resources and social
  capital theories complements and strengthens the
  development of a social theory focusing on the
  instrumental utility of accessed and mobilized
  resources embedded in social networks.

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The Social Capital Model of Status Attainment

• Describes the relationships between social
  resources and status attainment.
• Involves two processes
• One process focuses on the access to social
  capital resources accessed in egos general
  social networks.
• Another process focuses on the mobilization of
  social capital in the process of status
  attainment the use of social contact and the
  resources provided by the contact in the
  job-search process.

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The Social Capital Model of Status Attainment