Contrasting Theories Of Social Capital Sociology Essay

Contrasting Theories Of Social Capital Sociology Essay The terms social capital is a rather complex one, as a variety of different versions of definitions are used by researchers in defining the concepts and ideas associated to social capital. However, generally speaking, there are two related dimensions of social capital seemingly agreed by many researchers. The first dimension of social capital is the network of affiliation, such as the family groups, friendship ties, professional co-workers, business partners or contacts, and any other formal or informal associations or relationship, where a person belongs to. The second dimension is about the general behaviors the respective individuals or groups rely on in the formation, retention and usage process of the networks. There are three important gurus in the development of theories concerning the subject of social capital, namely Bourdieu, Coleman and Putnam. It is interesting to observe that all of them develop different theories of social capital. In the following section, the various theories of social capital from the gurus will be discussed. Later, employing the concepts and theories asserted by the respective guru, the notion that social capital predicts that returns to intelligence, education, and seniority depend in some part on a persons location in the social structure of a market or hierarchy. Bourdieus Social Capital According to Bourdieu (1986), social capital is defined as the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition or in other words, to membership or a group which provides each of its members with the backing of the collectively-owned capital, a credential which entitles them to credit, in the various senses of the word. According to Bourdieus argument, the social capital is a form of capital or resources, similar to the concept of economic capital and cultural capital, which may be used for achievement, privilege treatment and to some extent, social exclusion. Social capital in such a definition is the source of networks and connections for a certain people, allowing continuing and future access to certain privilege. In Bourdieus framework, the capital is a form of power, and people with higher social capital are better position in the world for better achievement and privileges. The possession of social capital may influence a persons economic capital, or the return to the economic capital. For example, comparing two people with different level of social capital, but both of them have exactly the equal amount of economic capital; the person with higher level of social capital will be able to generate better return to the similar amount of economic capital. The person possessing the social capital is more competitive positioned in the economic realm. The main contribution of Bourdieus theory is that it suggests that possession of social capital or the impacts of social exclusion will influence a persons access to power and privilege as well as the inability to access power. Thus, according to the assertion of Bourdieus theory, social capital can predict and influence the returns to intelligence; education and seniority depend in some part on a persons location in the social structure of a market or hierarchy. Such a statement is reasonable and understandable, where the impacts of social exclusion may prevent someone to generate returns to intelligence, education and seniority. People with better networks and connections are better positioned and easier to apply their intelligence, education and seniority in generating returns. In contrast, people without social capital may not able to perform so, as due to lack of networks, connections and useful relationships, many actions and strategies may not be implementable, relevant or workable due to the effect of social exclusion. Colemans Social Capital According to Coleman (1988), the concept social capital can be comparable to the physical and human capital, whereby it may facilitates certain actions from the actors in a structure. Such a conception of social capital is very different to the one suggested by Bourdieus theory. According to Coleman (1988), social capitals are largely created or destroyed as by-products of other forms of activities. In such a definition, Coleman treats the concept of social capital not as a form of capital, power or advantages possessed only by a certain group of elites. His research is primarily concern about the possession of social capital impacts towards the accumulation of human capital in young people. Some findings from Coleman discovered that social capital arises from closed network of family members, church members and etc, will contribute positively to human capital development in the young people. Besides, parental involvement in teaching children will also create a form of social capital, which will significantly reduce the children drop out from school in the early days. Apart from that, he discovered that parents that frequently move to new cities have lesser human capital because these parents are unable to share information about their children with other parents on better quality education for their children. The concept of social capital suggested by Coleman, if applied to the statement asserted by Burt, where it is said that social capital predicts that returns to intelligence, education and seniority depend in some part on a persons location in the social structure, can be confusing and complex. Firstly, Coleman is primarily concern about the educational achievement of young people, but the assertion by Burt does include a dimension of seniority, which is irrelevant from the discussion of social capital by Coleman. However, social capital does affect the returns to intelligence and education, whereby it is not hard to imagine that children with better upbringing condition and more attentive parents will achieve better in schools academically. Two similarly smart and brilliant children, under different upbringing situation, may have different achievement educationally. The children with better social capital will have high return to intelligence, in this context, as compared to the equa lly smart children who live in a broken or problematic family. Putnams Social Capital Putnams theories on social capital are more influential and widely discussed. According to him, there are two forms of social capital, namely, (a) the bonding social capital and (b) the bridging social capital. In his framework, the bonding social capital is derived from exclusive network or connections primarily from the ethnic fraternal organizations, family and close friends network or religion based groups. The bonding social capital described by Putnam is similar to Bourdieus and Colemans assertions, where such a form of social capital often is used to separate people from different sociological groups, and thus determine the availability or access to special privileges or resources. On the other hand, the bridging social capital is often referred to the inclusive network such as the collegial, professional and civic groups. More specifically, Putnam explain social capital as closely related to a form of civic virtue, and further argued that civic virtue is most powerful when it is embedded in a concentrated network of reciprocal social networks and relationship. As such, following Putnam conception of social capital, a society of many isolated individuals may not have richness in terms of social capital. In this line of argument, the social capital is a property of the collectives (i.e., for the society), whereas the social capital describe by Bourdieu and Coleman is mainly a possession of a particular individual. With reference to Putnams framework and theory, the assertion of Burt, where the social capital predicts that returns to intelligence, education and seniority depends in some part on a persons location in the social structure is a vague and doubtful one. The social capital is a groups possession and attributes in Putnams theory, so the social capital in a society does not have any direct linkages to the returns to intelligence, education and seniority of a person in the society. If there are any relationships, the linkages will be an indirect one. Conclusion After comparing and contrasting the various definitions, theories, findings and framework presented by the gurus, it is clear that the assertion by Burt is mainly adopting the definition suggested by Bourdieu. With Bourdieus definition, the assertion by Burt can be interpreted logically and meaningfully. The concepts of social capital are complicated and the context in which the idea is being discussed will determine the definition and conception of social capital. It is very important for the readers to understand the various theories concerning the subject of social capital to follow the researches findings and argument in the literature. (1398 words)

Farewell to Arms books :: essays papers

Farewell to Arms books 13.Henry has been taken to the American hospital in Milan where Miss Gage, a young nurse takes care of him. The head nurse forbid Henry to drink wine but he disobeys, and pays some Italians to bring him wine with the newspapers. Titles : Arrival at the hospital in Milan, first days at the hospital, encounter with Miss Gage & Miss Van Campen. 14.Arrival of Miss Barkley(Catherine), at the American hospital and the revelation of their love for each other. Henry learns by Miss Gage that Miss Barkley has come to work at the hospital. A barber comes to shave Henry but he mistakes him with an Austrian soldier and he threatens to cut his throat. Henry realises that he’s in love with Catherine and they spent their first night together. 15. Dr Valentini,. Henry is visited by doctors who remove some of the shrapnel from his leg. The doctors seem incompetent, and tell Henry he will have to wait six months for an operation if he wants to keep his leg. He cannot stand the thought of spending six months in bed, and asks for another opinion; the house doctor says he will send for Dr. Valentini. He’s a skilled doctor. When Dr. Valentini comes, he says he will perform the operation in the morning. 16. Preparation for the operation Catherine spends the night in Henry's room. Catherine prepares him for the operation, and warns him not to talk about their affair while under the anaesthetic. 17. After the operation, Henry is very sick. As he recovers, three other patients come to the hospital--a boy from Georgia with malaria, a boy from New York with malaria and jaundice, and a boy who tried to unscrew the fuse cap from an explosive shell for a souvenir. Henry develops an appreciation for Helen Ferguson, who helps him pass notes to Catherine while she is on duty. Catherine continues to stay with Henry every night, but Henry and Miss Gage finally convince her to take three nights off of night duty--Miss Van Campen has commented that Henry always sleeps till noon. 18. That summer Henri learns to walk on crutches, and he and Catherine enjoy Milan. They befriend the headwaiter at a restaurant called the Gran Italia, and Catherine continues to see Henry every night. They discuss marriage, but Catherine remains opposed to the idea for the time being. They pretend to be married instead.

Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Essay

The two poems I am comparing; â€Å"Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat† by Thomas Gray and â€Å"To a Mouse† by Robert Burns were both written in the eighteenth century, which makes it interesting to make a comparison of their content, style and techniques, to see how poems of the eighteenth century differ from each other.  Both of the poems feature an animal as the main subject of the poem. In Gray’s poem he has a house cat as the main focus of the poem whilst Burns dedicates his poem to a field mouse. Both these animals come to an unfortunate end. The cat due to curiosity â€Å"tumbled headlong† into â€Å"a tub of gold fishes† This supports the well known phrase â€Å"curiosity killed the cat† In the poem it refers to the cat as actually loosing 9 lives: â€Å"Eight times emerging from the flood  She mew’d to ev’ry watry God†.  No one arrives to save her:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr’d :  Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heared†.  The dolphin is included in the list of possible rescuers because it is a reference to the classical legend of the harpist, Arion, being saved by a dolphin which had been entranced by his music, much in the same way the cat wanted to be saved by someone who heard its meowing.  Ã‚  In Burns’s poem the mouse unlike the cat does not actually die, but it is made clear that the prospects for the mouse are bleak due to its home being destroyed by the plough and the fact winter is coming and the mouse has no time to build another home for itself: â€Å"Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,  But house or hald,  To thole the Winter’s sleety dribble,  An’craneuch cauld!†Ã‚  The poems are both basically about a particular ill-fated animal but each has a deeper meaning and message through anthropomorphism.  The cat in Gray’s poem is given feminine characteristics: a â€Å"fair round face† illustrates the ideal image of an eighteenth century woman’s face. Gray also uses metaphors to describe the cat which also apply to a lady’s jewels and adornments: â€Å"The velvet of her paws,  Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,   Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes.†Ã‚  In verse four the comparison of the cat to a woman is made even clearer:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"She stretch’d in vain to reach the prize.  What female heart can gold despise?  What cat’s averse to fish?†Ã‚  It is clear here that Gray is illustrating how women are seduced by the desire for gold as cats are seduced by the desire for fish. The anthropomorphism continues in verses 5 and 7:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Presumptious maid† and  Ã¢â‚¬Å"From hence you Beauties, undeceiv’d  Know one false step is ne’er retrieved†.  The last lines of the poem contain a moral:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Not all that tempts your wand’ring eyes  And heedless hearts, is lawful prize;  Nor all that glisters gold†. Through the cat Gray created a cautionary tale specifically aimed at women. It’s a warning not to be tempted by what is not rightly theirs, and not to be seduced by glittering appearances because it may not be as good as it looks on the outside.  Gray is very direct with his message of warning to women but he writes in a light-hearted way throughout. However, Burn’s poem is much more serious and sombre. He uses anthropomorphism like Gray to get his message across through an animal, in this case the mouse is used to highlight the social and moral problems that he felt existed in both the public and in his own family – His father died after eighteen years of hard work as a farmer. After his father’s death they had little money, leaving them no choice but to sublease a farm in order to keep their home. These experiences were brought through in to his poem when the mouse had its home destroyed by the plough:

Database Paper - 658 Words

Whatis.com (2004) defines a database as a collection of information that is organized so that it can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. In my current job at Wellco Tank Trucks, Inc., we do not use any type of databases in the daily operations of our business. My only job that involved regular use of a database was at Chilcutt Direct Marketing (CDM) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. From February 2003 to June 2004, I was an Account Executive of Brokerage at CDM. CDM is a direct marketing company that manages and brokers customer mailing lists for companies across the United States. The company uses an operating system called AS/400. AS/400 is setup with a database included. The database is customizable to fit the specific needs†¦show more content†¦By searching through the database using the target customer information, I could narrow the field of possible lists from 40,000 to less than fifty. From there, I would research each of the lists further to find the best pos sible customer lists for Bass Pro Shops to send Christmas catalogs to. Each employee at Chilcutt Direct Marketing spends an average of five hours per day actively using the Marketing Information Network database. MIN definitely made our jobs at CDM easier but the database would be much more beneficial to the company if a few changes were made. First, there have been several updates released for the AS/400 operating system that CDM uses but they are still using the original version. If they would update their operating system, they would find that the program would be more user-friendly and would be much more dependable. The other improvement that needs I suggest is in the consistency of functions within the database. For example, if you are in the order entry screen, the F1 function key is the command for field exit, the F4 key is for deleting and F5 updates the screen. 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