This paper reviews the origins and definitions of social capital in the writings of Bourdieu, Loury, and Coleman, among other authors. It distinguishes four sources of social capital and examines their dynamics. Applications of the concept in the sociological literature emphasize its role in social control, in family support, and in benefits mediated by extrafamilial networks. I provide examples of each of these positive functions. Negative consequences of the same processes also deserve attention for a balanced picture of the forces at play. I review four such consequences and illustrate them with relevant examples. Recent writings on social capital have extended the concept from an individual asset to a feature of communities and even nations. The final sections describe this conceptual stretch and examine its limitations. I argue that, as shorthand for the positive consequences of sociability, social capital has a definite place in sociological theory. However, excessive extensions of the concept may j...

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Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology

Oliver E. Williamson University of California, Berkeley This paper combines institutional economics with aspects of contract law and organization theory to identify and explicate the key differences that distinguish three generic forms of economic organization-market, hybrid, and hierarchy. The analysis shows that the three generic forms are distinguished by different coordinating and control mechanisms and by different abilities to adapt to disturbances. Also, each generic form is supported and defined by a distinctive type of contract law. The costeffective choice of organization form is shown to vary systematically with the attributes of transactions. The paper unifies two hitherto disjunct areas of institutional economics-the institutional environment and the institutions of governance-by treating the institutional environment as a locus of parameters, changes in which parameters bring about shifts in the comparative costs of governance. Changes in property rights, contract law, reputation effects, and uncertainty are investigated.'

/pdf/comparative-economic-organization-the-analysis-of-discrete-2pqve3tqkn.pdf

Comparative Economic Organization: The Analysis of Discrete Structural Alternatives

This study addressed the nature and functioning of relationships of interpersonal trust among managers and professionals in organizations, the factors influencing trust's development, and the implications of trust for behavior and performance Theoretical foundations were drawn from the sociological literature on trust and the social-psychological literature on trust in close relationships An initial test of the proposed theoretical framework was conducted in a field setting with 194 managers and professionals

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/256727.pdf

Affect- and Cognition-Based Trust as Foundations for Interpersonal Cooperation in Organizations

L'A. etudie le lien entre capital social et developpement economique. Il analyse la notion de capital social et souligne que cette notion caracterise un reseau de relations sociales jouissant d'une certaine autonomie et d'un relatif enracinement dans la vie sociale. Il examine la place du capital social dans le cadre des politiques de developpement economique et met en lumiere un certain nombre de contraintes et de possibilites inherentes aux dilemmes propres aux strategies de developpement «bas-haut» et «haut-bas». Il envisage de facon critique les theories et les politiques concues en matiere de developpement

Social capital and economic development: Toward a theoretical synthesis and policy framework

Evaluating organizations according to an efficiency criterion would make it possible to predict the form organizations will take under certain conditions. Organization theory has not developed such a criterion because it has lacked a conceptual scheme capable of describing organizational efficiency in sufficiently microsopic terms. The transactions cost approach provides such a framework because it allows us to identify the conditions which give rise to the costs of mediating exchanges between individuals: goal incongruence and performance ambiguity. Different combinations of these causes distinguish three basic mechanisms of mediation or control: markets, which are efficient when performance ambiguity is low and goal incongruence is high; bureaucracies, which are efficient when both goal incongruence and performance ambiguity are moderately high; and clans, which are efficient when goal incongruence is low and performance ambiguity is high.

/pdf/markets-bureaucracies-and-clans-33mc78jd5t.pdf

Markets, Bureaucracies, and Clans.

Ethnic Enterprise in America

Book-length study of black, Chinese, and Japanese self-employment in northern cities of the United States, 1880-1940, Self-employment is explained as a product of moral communities resulting from migration networks.

Ethnic Enterprise in America: Business and Welfare Among Chinese, Japanese and Blacks

(1984). Immigrant and ethnic enterprise in North America. Ethnic and Racial Studies: Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 195-216.

Ivan Light

Papers

Ethnic Enterprise in America

Ethnic Enterprise in America: Business and Welfare Among Chinese, Japanese and Blacks

Immigrant and ethnic enterprise in North America

Ethnic Enterprise in America: Business and Welfare Among Chinese, Japanese, and Blacks

From Many Strands: Ethnic and Racial Groups in Contemporary America.