Social Capital

When I started this book, I thought, surely community interaction is dying. Now, after reading a bit into the book, I see that highs and lows of community involvement go up and down over the decades depending on all kinds of factors including wars and the economy.  Now, I'm asking myself the question of whether community is really worse off then it was decades ago. I'll keep working on this thought as I read further.

So far, the book has covered what the term "social capital" means. The concept is all about how social networks have value. Nowadays, when I hear "social networks" I think of online communities. So, it's been good to have a history lesson (as the book provides) about what social network meant in the past (and still today) before we interacted so heavily online.

There are all kinds of different forms of social capital which at times remind me of the different forms of teaching and learning. These include formal, informal, repeated, and anonymous. Plus, there's bridging social capital where all kinds of different people come together and bonding social capital where people who have the similarities bond among themselves. And, just like with learning in general, it's important to remember that social capital has an ugly side too like when networks are used for hatred and terror.

I've also enjoyed learning some sociological terms like "intracohort" where change is detectable within each age group and "intercohort" where change is only detectable across generations.

One more thing...I just read that while numbers of organizations are increasing, this doesn't mean that these organizations actually have members or that their members actually see each other locally. Many organizations with have members that are only members because they pay a due, not because they are actually involved.

Better get reading...a long way to go!