Designing for Civil Society

What is social capital

Social capital has spread widely as a term to describe community strength....or something. But what is it... and is it much more than think-tank jargon? Stephen Downes has doubts. In his excellent daily newsletter be cites a useful compilation about social capital, and writes:
"There seems to be this desire on the part of some to reduce every sort of good to some sort of 'capital' - human capital, knowledge capital, and now, social capital. Social capital is, according to one definition, "the degree to which a community or society collaborates and cooperates (through such mechanisms as networks, shared trust, norms and values) to achieve mutual benefits." According to another, "Over time, social capital builds what may be termed as social infrastructure." Bleah. Terms like social capital should be banned. Let's call it what it is: popularity, connections, relationships, friends. Terms like 'social capital' blur such distinctions in the process of commodifying something more subtle, more valuable, than crass material benefit."
The compilation, cited by Luigi Canali De Rossi, Robin Good, is here.

Where best to meet online facilitators: in the cafe

I spent a great couple of hours yesterday with online community-builder Nancy White and friends, as she paused on her way from work in Armenia to home in Seattle. I don't know if community-builder quite covers Nancy's many skills, but that was at the core of our conversations.
It was one of those occasions where the surroundings were fairly mundane - noisy cafe in London's Festival Hall - but the result for me was old ideas clarified or dumped, and new ones generated. Here's a few - not to be attributed to Nancy, who may or may not agree. As the excellent facilitator she is, she encouraged us to bat things around, rather than holding forth herself. In the midst of it we did pick up that Armenia is big on barbecue, and that despite limited connectivity many people are really keen to use the Net for social benefit. I suspect part of that may be the Nancy effect, however.