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Nuovi libri sul capitale sociale e temi collegati

Questa sezione raccoglie notizie su nuovi libri in uscita, rapporti, pubblicazioni sul capitale sociale e temi collegati. Scrivetemi per pubblicizzare il vostro lavoro su questo sito. Gli annunci compariranno anche sulla home page per qualche tempo. Per gli annunci su Conferenze, Workshop e Call for papers, vai alla sezione del sito sulle Prossime conferenze.

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Posted July 18, 2010 (Thanks to Luigi Tronca)

• P. Di Nicola, S. Stanzani, L. Tronca, Forme e contenuti delle reti di sostegno. Il capitale sociale a Verona, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2010.

I veronesi hanno capitale sociale? Sono affidabili le loro relazioni familiari, di vicinato, amicali, di lavoro e associative? In che misura, le reti di sostegno forniscono ai cittadini di Verona risorse materiali, reputazione, utili contatti e sostegno emotivo nelle situazioni di maggiore difficoltà? Il volume costituisce un tentativo di rispondere a queste domande, delineando attraverso un’indagine sociologica una mappatura attendibile della distribuzione delle risorse sociali legate alla presenza di relazioni nel comune di Verona.

Segui il link per altri dettagli e acquistare il libro.

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Posted March 16, 2010 (Thanks to Anna Cossetta)

• Michele Bertani, 2010. Risorse, reti e capitale sociale. La partecipazione associativa degli immigrati.

Le reti sociali di aiuto, sostegno e conoscenze svolgono un ruolo di primo piano nella vita dei migranti e nei loro percorsi di integrazione. La rete sociale rappresenta una forma particolare di organizzazione delle relazioni interpersonali che per gli immigrati si gioca su più livelli: all’interno del gruppo etnico di riferimento, tra i connazionali che vivono la medesima esperienza di migrazione, nei luoghi di aggregazione religiosa, con i colleghi di lavoro e i vicini di casa, nelle strutture, istituzionali e non, che operano a favore dell’immigrazione.

Segui il link per vedere la scheda del libro.

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Posted March 16, 2010 (Thanks to Anna Cossetta)

• Marco Aime e Anna Cossetta, Il dono al tempo di internet.

Su Internet si trova di tutto, e quasi tutto gratis: dalle informazioni di Wikipedia ai pareri degli esperti sui blog e i forum, fino ai brani musicali sui network peer to peer. Chi regala il proprio lavoro, le proprie idee, i propri file sulla Rete sta facendo un dono? A chi, e perché? E con quali conseguenze?

Segui il link per ulteriori dettagli.

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Posted October 19, 2009 (Thanks to Asimina Christoforou)

• Ben Fine, Theories Of Social Capital: Researchers Behaving Badly.

Tracing the evolution of social capital since his highly acclaimed contribution of 2001 (Social Capital Versus Social Theory), Ben Fine consolidates his position as the world’s leading critic of the concept.
Fine forcibly demonstrates how social capital has expanded across the social sciences only by degrading the different disciplines and topics that it touches: a McDonaldisation of social theory. The rise and fall of social capital at the World Bank is critically explained as is social capital’s growing presence in disciplines, such as management studies, and its relative absence in others, such as social history.

Please follow the link for further details.

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Posted October 19, 2009 (Thanks to Marcello Signorelli)

• Enrico Marelli and Marcello Signorelli (Eds), Economic Growth and Structural Features of Transition, Palgrave MacMillan, 2010.

This book examines, theoretically and empirically, the key aspects and differences of economic growth as well as the main structural features of development in transition countries, from the 1989 fall of the Berlin wall to the 2008-09 global financial crisis and recession. Topics include institutional change and governance, human capital and social capital, models of growth and employment-productivity relationship, sectoral/regional structure and trade integration, income distribution/inequality and many features of labour markets performance. Most of the chapters refer to the European transition countries; in some cases a comparative perspective - Eastern versus Western EU countries - is adopted.

Please follow the link for further details.

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Posted October 19, 2009 (Thanks to Ross Deuchar)

• Ross Deuchar, Gangs, Marginalised Youth and Social Capital, Trentham Books Limited, 2009.

Here is a book written for all those who work with young people from disadvantaged groups, whether in schools or youth organisations. It will be of particular relevance to academic researchers with an interest in social capital and also to community educationalists and youth leaders, secondary teachers and students who are studying towards qualifications in community education and youth work. The book will also interest people who are concerned with community welfare: politicians, the police, community sports development officers and youth coaches. Adolescents today are demonised by politicians and the media across the world. We are bombarded with assertions of young people’s antisocial behaviour and gang fighting and the link to depletion of social capital. This book examines the extent to which young people are engaging with the indicators of social capital, as illustrated by a sample group of 16-18 year-olds in the most socially deprived urban areas of Glasgow in Scotland.

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Posted September 3, 2009 (Thanks to Mario Small)

• Mario Luis Small, 2009. Unanticiped Games: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Social capital theorists have shown that some people do better than others in part because they enjoy larger, more supportive, or otherwise more useful networks. But why do some people have better networks than others? Unanticipated Gains argues that the answer lies less in people's deliberate "networking" than in the institutional conditions of the churches, colleges, firms, gyms, childcare centers, schools, and other organizations in which they happen to participate routinely. The book illustrates and develops this argument by exploring the experiences of New York City mothers whose children were enrolled in childcare centers.

Unanticipated Gains examines why scores of these mothers, after enrolling their children in centers, dramatically expanded both the size and usefulness of their personal networks, often in ways they did not expect. Whether, how, and how much the mothers' networks were altered---and how useful these networks were---depended on the apparently trivial but remarkably consequential practices and regulations of the centers, from the structure of their PTOs, to the regularity of their fieldtrips to amusement parks and zoos, to their ostensibly innocuous rules regarding pick-up and drop-off times.

Relying on scores of in-depth interviews with mothers, quantitative data on both mothers and centers, and detailed case studies of other routine organizations (from beauty salons and bath houses to colleges and churches), Unanticiapted Gains shows that how much people gain from their connections depends substantially on institutional conditions they often do not control, and through everyday process they may not even be aware of.

Follow the link for further details.

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Posted September 3, 2009 (Thanks to Antonio Andreoni)

• Antonio Andreoni e Vittorio Pelligra, 2009. Microfinanza. Dare credito alle relazioni. Bologna, Il Mulino.

La microfinanza rappresenta una rivoluzione culturale più che economica, e antropologica ancor prima che politica. Alla base si colloca un sistema finanziario di supporto al processo di sviluppo sociale ed economico che prende le mosse da presupposti radicalmente differenti rispetto a quelli
tradizionali, e insiste su un processo di coinvolgimento che parte dal basso ma è bidirezionale. Solo nella reciprocità, infatti, una relazione di sostegno può promuovere la fioritura delle potenzialità e non avvilire la dignità dei beneficiari. Su questo punto si gioca la sfida culturale del microcredito, sulla
capacità di guardare al creditore come ad un potenziale partner, un alleato, non uno sfortunato da aiutare o, nel peggiore dei casi, un opportunista pronto a prendere il denaro e a scappare. Una sfida che – come illustra il volume in modo dettagliato – abbraccia la prospettiva della libertà e riconosce nel credito e nei servizi finanziari dei potenti moltiplicatori di opportunità, degli strumenti di inclusione sociale ed economica, dei promotori dell’intraprendenza e delle capacità umane.

Segui il link per altri dettagli e per leggere la prefazione di Stefano Zamagni.

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Posted April 14, 2009 (Thanks to Alice O’Mahoney)

• Gert Tinggard Svendsen and Gunnaar Lind Haase Svendsen, Handbook of Social Capital. The Troika of Sociology, Political Science and Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing.

The Handbook of Social Capital balances the ‘troika’ of sociology, political science and economics by offering important contributions to the study of bonding and bridging social capital networks. This inter-disciplinary Handbook intends to serve as a bridge for students and scholars within all the social sciences. The contributors explore the different scientific approaches that are all needed if international research is to embrace both the bright and the more shadowy aspects of social capital.

Contributors: T.K. Ahn, T.M. Bertilsson, C. Bjørnskov, D.D. Caulkins, R. Chase, R.N. Christensen, G.S. Epstein, L.P. Feld P. Graeff, P. Gundelach, F. Herreros, C. Hjorth-Andersen, V.N. Jones, H. Jordahl, N. Letki, P. Nannestad, E. Ostrom, M. Paldam, R. Patulny, M.B. Petersen, A. Poulsen, A. Roepstorff, B. Rothstein, F. Sabatini, S. Serritzlew, K.M. Sønderskov, G.T. Svendsen, G.L.H. Svendsen, E.M. Uslaner, R. Weber, M. Woolcock.

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Posted March 20, 2009 (Thanks to Douglas Tedford)

• Douglas Tedford, Social Capital and Internet Usage of Rural Guatemalan Teachers: Participatory Rural Appraisal Interviews and Group Assessments to Enhance Community-Driven Development for Online Teacher Education, VDM Verlag Dr. Müller.

This qualitative study examined Internet usage by Guatemalan English teachers in the rural, indigenous community of San Lucas Toliman, to improve enrollments and persistence in online teacher professional development programs promoted by the Fundación Rigoberta Menchú Tum in collaboration with the researcher.

Please follow the link for further details and to purchase the book.

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Posted February 12, 2009 (Thanks to Jouni Häkli)

• Jouni Häkli and Claudio Minca (2008), Social Capital & Urban Networks of Trust, Ashgate, Farnham, UK.

This is the first book on social capital and trust informed by a critical geographical perspective. The authors examine the role of social capital in the constitution and reproduction of urban networks of trust in different places and contexts. They explore how social capital and trust are reflected in the capacity of these networks to achieve their goals and to deliver specific forms of urban development in a number of Finnish and Italian cities. Finland and Italy present, in many ways, two almost paradigmatic cases of how social capital and trust can work in extremely different and yet very effective ways in the production of the urban. They are two almost ideal laboratories for experimenting new definitions and new understandings of the concepts in question.

Please follow the link for further details and to purchase the book.

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Posted January 27, 2009 (Thanks to Simone Borghesi)

• Simone Borghesi and Alessandro Vercelli (2008), Global Sustainability. Social and Environmental Conditions, Palgrave MacMillan.

This topical  book discusses the extent to which the post-war process of globalization may be considered consistent with the basic requisites of sustainable development. The ongoing debate surrounding this important issue has generated widespread interest but has also polarized public opinion into two opposing camps: those in favour of or against globalization, and those concerned or unconcerned with the requisites of sustainable development.
This book seeks to prove that these two concepts are not mutually exclusive, and that the current polarized debate is damaging and misleading. Through exploring the conceptual foundations of the issues, as well as comprehensively analysing data and country experiences, the book provides a rational overview of the relationship between the ongoing processes of globalization and sustainable development, and offers guidance on the best policies to keep them under control. The authors offer suggestions on how economic, social and environmental policies might be redirected to eliminate, or at least mitigate, the adverse effects of globalization while strengthening its positive influences on the sustainability of world development. Drawing extensively on empirical information, and covering aspects such as global warming, energy trends, inequality and health, this book is a vital companion for academics and policymakers active in this area.

Please follow the link to learn more and purchase the book.

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Posted January 27, 2009 (thanks to Ben K. Daniel)

• Ben K. Daniel (2009), Social Capital Modeling in Virtual Communities: Bayesian Belief Network Approaches.

Throughout history, the permeation of new technologies have assisted communities in their aim to collectively work together in addressing shared
problems for the attainment of specific goals and outcomes.
Social Capital Modeling in Virtual Communities: Bayesian Belief Network Approaches broadly examines what constitutes social capital in geographical communities and offers an in-depth description of its potential in virtual communities. Providing the latest findings for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers and academicians involved with virtual communities and social capital, this book draws upon insights from interdisciplinary fields such as artificial intelligence, human computer interaction, educational technology, and economics and sociology.

Please follow the link to learn more and purchase the book.

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Posted January 9, 2008 (thanks to Eric Uslaner)

• Dario Castiglione, Jan W. van Deth and Guglielmo Wolleb (2008), Handbook of Social Capital, Oxford University Press.

After twenty years of rapid expansion it is time for a more considered and critical assessment of how the concept of social capital has been adapted and refined, and how successful its application has been. The Handbook of Social Capital intends to do precisely that. It offers a state-of-the-art view of discussions about the concept of social capital and the way in which it has been applied in empirical research.
The organization of the Handbook reflects this intention by focusing on conceptual development and analysis in the first part; by identifying two main areas of research in which social capital has favoured the development of new and influential research programmes - political participation in democratic societies, and economic development; and by exploring the more normative and policy oriented consequences of social capital. All chapters comprising the volume were specifically written for the Handbook by some of the main experts in the fields. The book provides authoritative and innovative introduction to the study of social capital.

Please follow the link for further details.

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Posted December 22, 2008

• Massimo Pendenza, 2008, Teorie del capitale sociale, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino.

Da qui l'obiettivo del volume, ricostruire i vari significati di capitale sociale a partire da quegli autori considerati, da chi scrive, "originari" nelle accezioni: P. Bourdieu, J. S. Coleman, N. Lin, R. D. Putnam e, in Ialia, P. Donati.

Segui il link per vedere la scheda completa e per acquistare il volume.

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Posted October 27, 2008

• Vittorio Pelligra (a cura di), 2008, Imprese sociali. Scelte individuali e interessi comuni, Torino, Bruno Mondadori.

L’impresa sociale è un’impresa “speciale”, che rappresenta per molti una contraddizione in termini: un’impresa privata che persegue finalità pubbliche.
Le difficoltà, teoriche e pragmatiche, a comprendere le sue specificità nascono da una distorsione culturale che pone al centro delle categorie economiche e politiche contemporanee la nozione di contratto e che ha, di fatto, portato le scienze sociali e l’economia a un’attenzione esclusiva nei confronti di relazioni interumane fredde e distanti, tra soggetti adulti, estranei e uguali tra loro e a trascurare, invece, le reti di legami fiduciari e di dipendenza che pure connettono la maggior parte delle persone.
Ma può la nostra socialità trovare fondamento soltanto nei mutui benefici dello scambio, o piuttosto nasce e si sviluppa nella limitatezza, nella vulnerabilità, nel nostro non bastare a noi stessi, nella nostra “apparente” impossibilità di dare?
In quest’ottica le imprese sociali rappresentano una forma moderna e innovativa in grado di produrre effetti di sistema virtuosi sia per il mercato tradizionale sia nell’ambito del settore pubblico nel suo complesso, e attraverso esse la società civile assume la responsabilità della cura che nasce dalla diffusa e pervasiva vulnerabilità e reciproca dipendenza.

Segui il link per vedere l'indice e acquistare il libro.

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Posted October 17, 2008 (thanks to Mascia Ferri)

• Mascia Ferri, 2008, Come si forma l'opinione pubblica. Il contributo sociologico di Walter Lippmann, Milano, FrancoAngeli.

Per quanto la biografia e la formazione giovanile di Walter Lippmann (New York, 1889-1974), giornalista e saggista, non consentano di definirlo un sociologo nel senso canonico del termine, a distanza di ottant'anni le sue analisi sono un punto di riferimento ancora presente in molte teorie sugli effetti dei media, e possono essere di vasto interesse anche in altri ambiti della sociologia e politologia.
Dallo studio della sua opera emerge un concetto di opinione pubblica in tutto diverso da quello presentato nei recenti studi di comunicazione di massa, non tanto per le sue caratteristiche intrinseche, ma per il ruolo sociale che essa assume nelle moderne democrazie e nei paesi a regime totalitario. Qui l'opinione pubblica non è solo il "frutto buono" della democrazia, ma anche il "frutto cattivo" del quale l'individuo e la società a volte non possono fare a meno. Gli argomenti trattati da Mascia Ferri si prestano dunque ad una lettura poliedrica, su più livelli, apprezzabile da parte sia degli studenti sia dei lettori non addetti ai lavori ma desiderosi di acquisire strumenti critici adeguati alla complessità del presente.


Mascia Ferri è dottoranda in Storia e sociologia della modernità all'Università di Pisa. Laureata in Sociologia e in Scienze della comunicazione alla Sapienza con una specializzazione in Metodologia della ricerca sociale. Insegna e svolge attività di ricerca in diverse università italiane. Relatrice negli ultimi congressi mondiali di sociologia e in diversi convegni internazionali dell'ISA.
Il suo attuale focus di ricerca riguarda i processi storico-sociali sottostanti alla formazione dell'opinione pubblica in Italia e alla sua analisi critica.

Segui il link per vedere l'indice e acquistare il libro.
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Posted October 17, 2008 (thanks to David Truscello)

• David Keith Truscello (2008), It Is not What You Know But Whom You Know: Expanding Student Social Capital Networks of Knowledge through Critical Pedagogy, Saarbrücken.

Because people learn within social capital networks, an educational praxis
is needed within families and schools that develops student critical
consciousness about why and how to expand ties to new learning communities
of exemplars. Such praxis would involve both overtly negotiating truth
claims about culture and class in classroom discussions and also placing
students in learning situations of legitimate peripheral participation
within communities beyond their initial personal reach. Through critical
pedagogy, participants in this study discovered that they were able to
reflect on their situation in the world and to plan for social action to
transform their situation by developing their own unique social capital
networks of success and fulfillment.

Please follow the link for further details.

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Posted October 17, 2008 (thanks to Prasenjit Maiti)

• K.R. Gupta, Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen and Prasenjit Maiti, Social Capital, Vol. I and II, New Delhi, Atlantic, 2008.

Vol. I. Preface. 1. Social capital--an overview/K.R. Gupta. 2. Introduction of increasing scientific horsepower: social capital, cross-disciplinarity, and trust/Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen. 3. The role of social capital within regeneration; can building social capital benefit regeneration contexts? a review of the literature/Louise Warwick-Booth. 4. Defining social capital/David Conrad. 5. Social capital formation in rural, urban and suburban communities/David L. Debertin and Stephan J. Goetz. 6. Managing through social capital: the importance of social capital for women in combating social exclusion/Victoria Gosling. 7. Social capital: provoking promising and problematic/Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen. 8. Social capital and community heterogeneity/Hilde Coffe. 9. Gendering social capital theory/Sam Wong. 10. Some reflections on gift theory and social capital/Anne Gray. 11. Non-profit organizations, social capital and regional economic growth/Jesus Clemente; Carmen Marcuello and Fernando Pueyo. 12. Public sculpture and community social capital generation/David Conrad. 13. The role of social capital in research participation/Sally Lindsay and Simon Smith. Bibliography. Contributors.

Vol. II. Preface. 1. Engendering social capital: women workers and rural-urban networks in Indonesia's crisis/Rachel Silvey and Rebecca Elmhirst. 2. Trust and family/Eric M. Uslaner. 3. Trust and consequences/Eric M. Uslaner. 4. Knowledge sharing for developing social capital/Tapomoy Deb. 5. Complex cultures: rereading the story about health and social capital/Sara C. MacKian. 6. Do social trusters like immigrants? The impact of social capital on people's attitudes towards immigration/Francisco Herreros. 7. Social cohesion as factor in development/Ivor Chipkin. 8. The contribution of income, social capital, and institutions to human well-being in Africa/Mina Baliamoune-Lutz and Stefan Lutz. Contributors.

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Posted October 17, 2008 (thanks to Arnaldo Pellini)

• Arnaldo Pellini, 2008, The Complexity of Decentralisation Reforms, VDM Verlag Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG.

Synopsis
This book analyses the characteristics of community participation in Cambodian rural schools. It looks at the spaces for participation created by the decentralisation reforms that the government of Cambodia has undertaken in the education sector through two main policies: school clustering and Priority Action Programme. While institutionalised spaces of participation created by these policies are relatively new, Cambodian communities, despite twenty five years of political turmoil, have traditionally provided support to schools through school associations. The study refers to bonding, bridging, and institutional social capital to explore, respectively, the characteristics of the horizontal links between community members as well as different forms of collective action, and the vertical links between community, schools and local government institutions. The analysis should be especially useful to academics, researchers, policy makers, and development practitioners involved and interested in the complexity of the link between participation and local governance reforms.

Arnaldo Pellini (PhD), is an economist who joined the Overseas Development Institute in London  in June 2008 after two years working for UNDP on a programme to improve research management and policy engagement at the Vietnamese Academy for Social Science and almost six years in Nepal and Cambodia where he worked on local governance.

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Posted October 17, 2008 (thanks to Joseph D. Lewandowski)

• Joseph D. Lewandowski and Milan Znoj (2008), Trust and Transitions. Social Capital in a Changing World, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Employing a range of empirical and theoretical approaches, contributors to this volume examine the nature and function of trust from within the framework of social capital theory. The empirically oriented chapters focus on post-Communist countries, including Serbia and Montenegro, Romania and, especially, the Czech Republic. Indeed, the collection contains an entire section devoted to analyzing trust and transition in the wake of the “velvet revolution.” The theoretical chapters engage the work of Tocqueville, Putnam, and Uslaner, among others, as they seek to clarify and rethink what in fact trust is, where trust originates, the causal relevance of trust for successful marketization and democratization, and the extent to which existing conceptions of social capital can be adequately deployed in diverse contexts.

Joseph D. Lewandowski is a former US Fulbright Scholar in the Department of Political Science at Charles University and professor of philosophy at the University of Central Missouri. He is the author of Interpreting Culture: Rethinking Method and Truth in Social Theory (University of Nebraska Press), as well as articles on social capital and political theory that have appeared in
the Journal of Poverty, Journal of Social Philosophy, and European Journal of Social Theory.

Milan Znoj is professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at Charles University and a researcher in the Institute of Philosophy at the Czech Academy of Sciences. He is the editor of Josef Lux a česká politika 90. let (Josef Lux and Czech Politics in the 1990s), as well as the author of numerous books and articles on political theory, liberalism, and civil society.

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Posted October 17, 2008 (thanks to Luigi Tronca)

• Paola Di Nicola, Sandro Stanzani, Luigi Tronca, Reti di prossimità e capitale sociale in Italia, FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2008

Il volume mette a fuoco la complessa tematica della rilevanza delle reti di prossimità in Italia. La strada che si percorre per affrontare lo studio di questo tema consiste nell’analisi della capacità delle reti comunitarie di rappresentare una fonte, più o meno diretta, di capitale sociale per gli individui. Gli autori, a partire da dati rilevati su un campione rappresentativo della popolazione italiana,  studiano quindi le relazioni tra caratteristiche delle reti di prossimità e capitale sociale. In particolare, si analizzano le qualità socio-strutturali delle reti di prossimità presenti in Italia e se ne tratteggia la differenziazione rispetto agli attributi individuali. Si esplora poi la distribuzione delle diverse forme di capitale sociale in Italia (familiare, della parentela, comunitario allargato, associativo, generalizzato), ponendone in risalto le relazioni con le caratteristiche di profilo degli intervistati. Si prendono, infine, in considerazione le relazioni tra reti di prossimità, stili di vita individuali e forme di capitale sociale.

Introduzione, di Paola Di Nicola, Sandro Stanzani e Luigi Tronca

1. Le relazioni comunitarie, di Paola Di Nicola

2. Le forme di capitale sociale, di Luigi Tronca

3. Reti comunitarie e capitale sociale, di Luigi Tronca

4. Capitale sociale comunitario, impegno civico e partecipazione associativa, di Sandro Stanzani   

5. La “neutralizzazione” del sostegno comunitario, di Claudia Pedercin

Paola Di Nicola è professore ordinario di Sociologia dei processi culturali e comunicativi nella Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione dell’Università di Verona.

Sandro Stanzani è professore associato di Sociologia dei processi culturali e comunicativi nella Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere dell’Università di Verona.

Luigi Tronca è ricercatore di Sociologia generale nella Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione dell’Università di Verona.

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Posted September 29, 2008 (thanks to Matthew Nicholson)

• Matthew Nicholson and Russell Hoye (2008), Sport and Social Capital, London: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Despite the importance of sport as a social, economic and political institution, research into sport and social capital has not been extensive. Sport and Social Capital is the first book to examine this increasingly high profile area in detail. It explores the ways in which sport contributes to the creation, development, maintenance and, in some cases, diminution of social capital. Written by an internationally renowned author team who are leading figures in this area of study, this engaging and far-reaching text brings leading research from around the world into one comprehensively edited volume. Themes covered in the book include: education, gender, policy, community, youth sport, diversity and many more. It is essential reading for sport management, sport development and sport sociology students around the globe and offers fascinating and invaluable insight to interested stakeholders from industry, community and government.

Table of Contents

•   1 Sport and social capital: An introduction, Matthew Nicholson and Russell Hoye
  Part One Concepts and Contexts
•   2 Avoiding the numbers game: Social theory, policy and sport's role in the art of relationship building, Tim Crabbe
•   3 Sport-in-development: Development for and through sport?, Fred Coalter
•   4 Locating social capital in sport policy, Russell Hoye and Matthew Nicholson
•   5 Narrowing the gap through sport, education and social capital?, Grant Jarvie
  Part Two Clubs and Community Sport Organizations
•   6 Community sport networks, Alison Doherty and Katie Misener
•   7 Voluntary sport clubs: The potential for the development of social capital, Chris Auld
•   8 Community sport/recreation members and social capital measures in Sweden and Australia, Kevin M. Brown
•   9 Volunteering in community sport organizations: Implications for social capital, Graham Cuskelly
  Part Three Sport and Social Capital in Action
•   10 Sport ' s ambiguous relationship with social capital: The contribution of national governing bodies of sport, Jonathan Long
•   11 Public policies, social capital and voluntary sport, Ørnulf Seippel
•   12 Race equality and sport networks: Social capital links, Kevin Hylton
•   13 Stepping into community? The impact of youth sport volunteering on young people ' s social capital, Steven Bradbury and Tess Kay
•   14 Soccer and social capital in Australia: Social networks in transition, Daniel Lock, Tracy Taylor and Simon Darcy
•   15 Sport facilities as social capital, Mark Rosentraub and Akram Ijla.

Please follow the link to purchase the book from Elsevier's web site.

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Posted July 26, 2008 (thanks to Luigi Tronca)

• Pierpaolo Donati e Luigi Tronca, Il capitale sociale degli italiani. Le radici familiari, comunitarie e associative del civismo, Milano, FrancoAngeli.

Presentazione
Quanto (e quale) capitale sociale hanno gli italiani? Dove si trova? Chi lo produce e chi lo consuma? Con quali conseguenze?
Questo volume traccia una nuova mappa del capitale sociale in Italia sulla base di un approccio che lo intende come una specifica relazione sociale di fiducia e reciprocità, su cui si innestano valenze culturali, economiche e politiche. Si vede allora chi genera e chi consuma capitale sociale e con quali effetti sul tessuto sociale.
Tra i molti risultati a cui il volume perviene, è centrale l'analisi dello scarso impegno civico degli italiani, dovuto non tanto al prevalere dei legami familiari, parentali, amicali, che pure concorrono ad alimentare il capitale sociale, quanto soprattutto al fatto che le associazioni di società civile producono poco capitale.
I dati qui presentati pongono un grande problema pubblico, un social issue, che merita un ampio dibattito, perché da esso dipende il progresso o il declino del Paese.

Indice
Pierpaolo Donati, Introduzione. Il capitale sociale come qualità della società civile
Pierpaolo Donati, Civismo e reti sociali: perché le reti contano nel produrre capitale sociale
(Alle radici del problema che assilla l'Occidente: come orientare l'individualismo al senso civico; Capitale sociale e civismo: dopo Putnam; Il capitale sociale come se le relazioni sociali non contassero; Il quadro generale della ricerca: il capitale sociale come se le reti facessero la differenza; La definizione di capitale sociale adottata e la costruzione degli indicatori; Il disegno della ricerca empirica; I principali risultati e il significato complessivo dell'indagine)
Pierpaolo Donati, Che cos'è il capitale sociale, come e dove si forma: chiariamo la prospettiva relazionale
(Capitale sociale e reti associazionali: qualcosa di nuovo dopo Tocqueville?; Due modi paradigmatici sinora prevalenti nel leggere il capitale sociale: le loro varianti e i loro mix, pregi e difetti; Un nuovo approccio al capitale sociale: la prospettiva relazionale; Capitale sociale associazionale e beni relazionali)
Luigi Tronca, La consistenza del capitale sociale, le sue varie forme e la sua incidenza sull'impegno civico
(Introduzione: la rilevanza delle relazioni per l'analisi del capitale sociale; Reti di relazioni e impegno civico: perché è necessario approfondire lo studio del capitale sociale; Il capitale sociale in Italia; Con cosa è in relazione il capitale sociale?; Le relazioni tra i tipi di capitale sociale; Il capitale sociale e l'impegno civico)
Luigi Tronca, La distribuzione geografica del capitale sociale in Italia: chi ne ha di più e chi di meno
(Introduzione; La distribuzione del capitale sociale nelle zone geografiche; Un identikit delle zone geografiche; Conclusioni)
Pierpaolo Donati, Quanto (e come) contano le associazioni nel rendere civile l'Italia?
(Il problema: che cosa conta il capitale sociale associativo agli effetti della produzione di impegno civico?; Analisi della popolazione totale; Analisi del sotto-insieme degli associati; Le correlazioni fra i vari tipi di capitale sociale; Sintesi dei risultati)
Pierpaolo Donati, Conclusioni: quali reti generano capitale sociale e, attraverso di esso, impegno civico?
(Chi genera il capitale sociale; Il mondo associazionale, le reti e la differenziazione del capitale sociale; Conclusioni)
Luigi Tronca, Postfazione. Ripensare le "mappe del tesoro"
Luigi Tronca, Nota metodologica
(La costruzione del campione e la rilevazione dei dati; La costruzione degli indici)
Appendice
Luigi Tronca, Analisi delle caratteristiche delle forme di capitale sociale
Luigi Tronca, Analisi, divisa per zone geografiche, delle relazioni tra variabili strutturali e di profilo e indici di capitale sociale
Il questionario

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Posted July 26, 2008 (thanks to Andrea Cerase)

• Mario Morcellini e Barbara Mazza (eds), Oltre l'individualismo. Comunicazione, nuovi diritti e capitale sociale, Milano, FrancoAngeli.

Cosa resta dopo l'entrata in crisi dei partiti politici, delle istituzioni, della famiglia? Quali sono i processi che accompagnano la ridefinizione degli spazi e dei modi dell'agire collettivo? Oltre l'individualismo è uno spaccato sulle dinamiche più rappresentative dell'ultimo decennio, volto a ricostruire il complesso rapporto tra individuo e società. Nel testo vengono evidenziate situazioni sociali apparentemente in opposizione. Da un lato, la postmodernità, con i suoi corollari sull'affermazione dei valori individualistici e la frammentazione della cultura, dall'altro, l'affermarsi della networked society. Contraddizioni che stimolano la contaminazione e la ridefinizione delle categorie individualità/comunità, spazio/tempo, cittadinanza/attivismo civico, mentre si fa acuta la domanda soggettiva di relazioni significative, in cui tornano ad acquisire pienezza semantica le parole-chiave proprie del capitale sociale: fiducia, reputazione, rete, dono, scambio, conoscenza, responsabilità. Sono "virtù" della società civile, capaci di intervenire nella gestione dei processi di ricomposizione sociale e individuale, come di presiedere allo sviluppo della relazionalità diffusa, quale affermazione evidente della ricerca di relazioni significative intersoggettive. La ricomposizione spetta sempre più alla comunicazione quale sinonimo di socialità, strumento di superamento dell'individualismo, piattaforma di connessione e fluidificazione delle conoscenze.

Segui il link per acquistare il volume.

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Posted July 26, 2008 (thanks to Lilia Costabile)

• Lilia Costabile (ed), Institutions for Social Well Being. Alternatives for Europe, Palgrave Macmillan.

Table of contents

Introduction; L.Costabile
European Union Social Policy in a Globalising Context; A.B.Atkinson
Conditions of Social Vulnerability, Work and Low Income: Evidence for Europe in Comparative Perspective; T.Munzi & T.Smeeding
The Enforcement-Equality Tradeoff; S.Bowles & A.Jayadev
Insurance, Redistribution and the Welfare State: Economic Theory and International Comparisons; R.Artoni& A.Casarico
Social Models, Growth and Key Currencies; L.Costabile& R.Scazzieri
Care Regimes and the European Employment Rate; F.Bettio& J.Plantenga
The Swedish Model in the Era of Integration and Globalisation; B.Gustafsson
Cultural Diversity and Economic Solidarity; M.D'Antoni& U.Pagano
Conclusion; L.Costabile

Please follow the link to purchase the book from Macmillan's web site.

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Posted July 11, 2008

• Giuseppe Garofalo e Fabio Sabatini (a cura di), Homo Oeconomicus? Dinamiche imprenditoriali in laboratorio, Bologna, Il Mulino.

Segui il link per acquistare il libro con lo sconto del 15% sul prezzo di copertina.

In che modo gli imprenditori compiono le loro scelte? La teoria economica tradizionale presuppone agenti razionali che massimizzano i profitti tenendo conto del vincolo della tecnologia. E' quanto sintetizza la metafora dell'homo oeconomicus. L'esperienza mostra invece che le decisioni sono influenzate anche dai sentimenti, le norme morali, le interazioni sociali e le istituzioni. Talora gli agenti si comportano in modo altruistico anche quando non è conveniente farlo; in altri casi non cooperano anche se sarebbe vantaggioso. Il capitale sociale, inteso come la rete di conoscenze e la condivisione di valori che possono favorire la fiducia, la cooperazione e la sanzione di comportamenti opportunistici, costituisce una condizione per lo sviluppo. In questo volume vengono rilevati questi aspetti in vivo con riferimento ad un sistema locale costituito da piccole imprese, talora di tipo distrettuale. Le indagini sono di due tipi: un questionario somministrato ad oltre ottanta imprenditori e un "gioco della fiducia" condotto sulla metà di questi soggetti. La principale implicazione dell'analisi è che in un contesto globale e aperto l'esistenza di infrastrutture sociali adeguate non perde di importanza: la cooperazione è condizione necessaria per realizzare processi di riconversione e di ristrutturazione, ma anche per diffondere l'innovazione, soprattutto in aree produttive a sviluppo ritardato.

I saggi contenuti nel volume:

• Introduzione. Territori di confine: economia vs. scienze sociali, economia vs. scienze sperimentali, di Giuseppe Garofalo.

• Che cosa è il capitale sociale: una rassegna, di Fabio Sabatini.

• Misurare il capitale sociale, di Fabio Sabatini.

• La behavioral economics e gli esperimenti in economia, di Alessandra Smerilli.

• Cooperazione, capitale sociale e crescita: un modello evolutivo, di Luca Correani.

• Guida pratica alla misurazione del capitale sociale, di Fabio Sabatini.

• Capitale sociale e fiducia: un'analisi econometrica, di Fabio Sabatini.

• Gli imprenditori giocano con la fiducia, di Alessandra Smerilli.

• Conclusioni. Le politiche di stimolo all'accumulazione di capitale sociale e alla diffusione della fiducia, di Giuseppe Garofalo.

Gli autori

Giuseppe Garofalo è professore ordinario di Economia Politica nella Facoltà di Economia dell'Università della Tuscia, dove insegna anche Economia dei mercati monetarie finanziari.

Fabio Sabatini è assegnista di ricerca presso il Dipartimento di Economia Politica dell'Università di Siena, dove insegna Economia dello Sviluppo presso la Facoltà di Scienze Politiche. E' autore di numerosi saggi sul capitale sociale, pubblicati su riviste nazionali e internazionali, e curatore di Social Capital Gateway.

Alessandra Smerilli è professore aggiunto di Economia Politica presso la Pontificia Facoltà di Scienze dell'Educiazione Auxilium. E' stata visiting researcher presso il Dipartimento di Economia della University of East Anglia.

Luca Correani è ricercatore presso la Facoltà di Economia dell'Università della Tuscia, dove insegna Economia Industriale.

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Posted July 1, 2008 (thanks to Eric Uslaner)

• Eric M. Uslaner, Corruption, Inequality, and the Rule of Law: The Bulging Pocket Makes the Easy Life, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Corruption flouts rules of fairness and gives some people advantages that others don't have. Corruption is persistent; there is little evidence that countries can escape the curse of corruption easily-or at all. Instead of focusing on institutional reform, Uslaner suggests that the roots of corruption lie in economic and legal inequality and low levels of generalized trust (which are not readily changed) and poor policy choices (which may be more likely to change). Economic inequality provides a fertile breeding ground for corruption-and, in turn, it leads to further inequalities. Just as corruption is persistent, inequality and trust do not change much over time in my cross-national aggregate analyses. Uslaner argues that high inequality leads to low trust and high corruption, and then to more inequality-an inequality trap and identifies direct linkages between inequality and trust in surveys of the mass public and elites in transition countries.

Eric M. Uslaner is Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland-College Park, where he has taught since 1975. He has written seven books including The Moral Foundations of Trust (Cambridge University Press, 2002), and The Decline of Comity in Congress (University of Michigan Press, 1993). In 1981-82 he was Fulbright Professor of American Studies and Political Science at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel and in 2005, he was a Fulbright Senior Specialist Lecturer at Novosibirsk State Technical University, Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia. In 2006 he was appointed the first Senior Research Fellow at the Center for American Law and Political Science at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing, China.

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Posted July 1, 2008 (thanks to Marta Nachtmannova)

• What does "European citizenship" mean to Europeans?, Flash Eurobarometer Survey No. 213.

A Flash Eurobarometer survey on European Union citizenship (No 213), commissioned by the European Commission, asked citizens of the EU to clarify how familiar they are with their status as an EU citizen, and the various rights they possess through this second “nationality”.

Please follow the link to download the full report in Pdf format.

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Posted May 13, 2008 (thanks to Marc Morjé Howard)

•  "Symposium on Civic Engagement and Civic Attitudes in Cross-National Perspective", Political Studies, March 2008 - Vol. 56, No. 1

Guest-edited by Marc Morjé Howard and Dietlind Stolle

•  Dietlind Stolle and Marc Morjé Howard, "Civic Engagement and Civic Attitudes in Cross-National Perspective: Introduction to the Symposium"
•  Marc Morjé Howard and Leah Gilbert, "A Cross-National Comparison of the Internal Effects of Participation in Voluntary Organizations"
•  Jack Citrin and John Sides, "Immigration and the Imagined Community in Europe and the United States"
•  Dietlind Stolle, Stuart Soroka, and Richard Johnston, "When Does Diversity Erode Trust? Neighborhood Diversity, Interpersonal Trust and the Mediating Effect of Social Interactions"
•  Russell J. Dalton, "Citizenship Norms and the Expansion of Political Participation"

For more information on the U.S. CID survey - including the questionnaire, results, data, and a public report on the key findings - see www.uscidsurvey.org.  The individual articles and the full symposium are also available on the website in PDF format.

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Posted May 13, 2008 (thanks to Maria Semitel Garcia)

• María Semitiel García, Social Capital, Networks, and Economic Development. An Analysis of Regional Productive Systems, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2008.

This book analyses productive systems from a structural relational perspective, linking the structure and evolution of productive systems to economic development. An epistemological approach is adopted, which considers the social nature of economic actors and the importance of historical and geographical aspects.
María Semitiel García uses the structure and evolution of an agro-food and a metal-mechanical regional productive system to illustrate the benefits of adopting the network perspective as a methodological approach in economic research. The existence and persistence of inter-regional development differences, the structure of production systems, the role of services in these systems and the role of social capital in development are also discussed.
Highlighting a holistic and comprehensive study of productive systems and its relationship with development, this book will strongly appeal to a wide-ranging audience, encompassing those with a special interest in regional development, institutional economics, industrial economics and policy, social network analysis and economic sociology.

Please follow the link to download the book's flyer.

Please follow the link to purchase the book.

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Posted May 6, 2008 (thanks to Sam Wong)

• Sam Wong, Exploring Unseen Social Capital in Community Participation. Everyday Lives of Poor Mainland Chinese Migrants in Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2007.

This book argues that using social capital to eradicate poverty is less likely to succeed because the mainstream neo-institutional approach mistakenly assumes that social capital necessarily benefits poor people. This inadequacy calls for a re-assessment of human motivations, institutional dynamics and structural complexity in social capital building.

Exploring ‘Unseen' Social Capital in Community Participation: Everyday Lives of Poor Mainland Chinese Migrants in Hong Kong proposes a ‘pro-poor' social capital perspective, highlighting poverty-specific outcomes in collective action. The ‘agency-institution-structure' framework is suggested in order to explore the mechanisms facilitating and constraining different groups of poor people in gaining access to social capital.

Using ethnographic and participatory methods, this book calls for an exploration of ‘unseen' social capital. ‘Unseen' social capital highlights the nature of everyday co-operation which is shaped by social norms, influenced by conscious and less-conscious motivations, and subject to livelihood priority changes. As such this book is useful to policy makers and practitioners.

Sam Wong is lecturer in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds, UK. He obtained the ICAS Book Prize ‘Best Dissertation Award' at ICAS 4 in Shanghai in 2005.

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Posted April 23, 2008 (thanks to Ryszard  Zukowski)

• Ryszard  Zukowski, Social  Capital  and  Challenges of Development
In  Latin  America  and East Central  Europe, Warsav University, Center for Latin-American Studies, 2008.

This book focuses on two main issues. First, it attempts to synthesize and appraise explorations of social capital, and particularly its origins. Second, it undertakes a comparative study of social capital between Latin America and East Central Europe, which we find similar in many meaningful respects. Owing to their historical and civilizational specificity, we have determined Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus to be beyond the scope of this study. Thus, the extent of the East Central European sample roughly coincides with the prevailing definition of this region in the literature on this topic.

Please follow the link to download the introduction.

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Posted April 23, 2008 (thanks to Francisco Herreros)

• Francisco Herreros, The Problem of Forming Social Capital. Why Trust?, New York: Palgrave 2004; paperback edition 2008.

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Posted October, 15, 2007 (thanks to Vittorio Pelligra)

• Vittorio Pelligra, I paradossi della fiducia. Scelte razionali e dinamiche interpersonali, Bologna, Il Mulino.

Le società che, più di altre, sono state in grado di costruire e sviluppare norme e legami fiduciari, dalla condivisione di cibo tra i cacciatori-raccoglitori fino alle transazioni informatiche delle moderne economie "dot.com", sono riuscite a innescare processi di sviluppo non solo economico, ma anche politico e sociale. Senza fiducia precipiteremmo in una condizione molto simile allo stato di natura hobbesiano, dove non esistono "arti, né lettere, né società", dove domina "la continua paura ed il pericolo di una morte violenta". Fidarsi significa innanzitutto instaurare una relazione interpersonale e, nell'ambito di essa, operare congiuntamente per il miglioramento dello "status quo". Ma a tale possibilità fa da naturale contraltare il rischio legato al tradimento della fiducia. Fidarsi vuol dire rischiare, ma implica anche indurre gli altri ad essere più affidabili. Qui sta il paradosso: fidarsi significa ridurre il rischio del tradimento. Questo volume esplora attraverso l'analisi economica, con incursioni nei territori della filosofia, della storia delle idee e della psicologia, la rilevanza di tale paradosso per la comprensione e la regolazione dei fenomeni economici e sociali in genere.

Vittorio Pelligra è ricercatore di Economia politica nell'Università di Cagliari. Ha conseguito il PhD in Economics a Norwich. Insegna Microeconomia avanzata, Teoria dei giochi, Economia dello stato sociale nell'Università di Cagliari, e Teoria dei giochi e organizzazioni nel Master di Economia civile nell'Università di Milano Bicocca.

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Posted October, 15, 2007

Istat (2007), Le cooperative sociali in Italia 2005, Roma, Istat.

Crescono a 7.363 le cooperative sociali in Italia, registrando nel 2005 una crescita del 19,5% rispetto alla precedente rilevazione del 2003 e del 33,5% rispetto al 2001.

Presentati nuovi dati ISTAT sulla cooperazione sociale in Italia nel corso della settima edizione delle Giornate di Bertinoro per l’Economia Civile di AICCON, l’appuntamento annuale che mette a confronto i maggiori esponenti del mondo accademico e dei rappresentanti più autorevoli dell’economia civile in Italia, quest’anno dedicato al tema della regolamentazione del terzo settore e dell’innovazione sociale.

Cresce il numero delle cooperative sociali e cresce anche il fatturato, facendo registrare una produzione di circa 6,4 miliardi di euro.
I lavoratori retribuiti sono 244.000, i non retribuiti 34.000, con una forza lavoro costituita da donne per il 71,2%.
La rilevazione indica un aumento generale di tutte le grandezze e una stabilità per quanto riguarda la composizione dell’universo dei soggetti e la suddivisione per tipologia.
Significativo è il dato dell’utenza: per le cooperative di tipo A gli utenti sono 3.302.551, mentre nel 2003 erano 2.403.245. Di questi la categoria più numerosa è rappresentata dai minori (28,8%) e dagli utenti con specifici disagi (26,8%).
Rimane come settore prevalente quello dell’assistenza sociale e dei servizi assistenziali.
Per le cooperative di tipo B i lavoratori svantaggiati diventano 30.141, di cui la maggior parte disabili.

Segui il link per scaricare la presentazione Istat in formato Pdf.

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Posted October, 15, 2007 (thanks to Luigi Tronca)

• Luigi Tronca, L'analisi del capitale sociale, Cedam.

Il volume analizza le varie teorie sociologiche che si sono susseguite negli anni utilizzando anche strumenti empirici di valutazione. Dalla prima metà degli anni Novanta, il concetto di capitale sociale è divenuto sempre più rilevante all’interno delle scienze sociali. L’ambiguità di fondo, la polisemia ed il forte legame con il concetto di reticolo sociale ne hanno favorito una rapida diffusione. In sociologia, esso ha rappresentato l’ennesima occasione per la riproduzione di alcuni dei dilemmi classici che riguardano la disciplina (individualismo/olismo metodologico, micro/macro, etc.). Nel volume si mostra come l’intrinseca ed inderogabile costituzione relazionale del concetto renda paradossale il duello tra i corni dei dilemmi sociologici e faccia del capitale sociale il terreno ideale per un primo e serrato confronto tra l’approccio sociologico relazionale e quello interazionista strutturale. Il confronto è svolto sia sul piano teorico che su quello empirico, attraverso la presentazione della concreta implementazione delle strategie di studio del capitale sociale individuate dai due approcci conoscitivi. L’esito di questo confronto conduce ad ipotizzare un percorso d’integrazione metodologica tra i due approcci all’interno di un unico paradigma della ricerca sociale e, quindi, alla formulazione di una nuova strategia per l’analisi del capitale sociale.

Indice: Presentazione di Pierpaolo Donati. – Introduzione. – I: Il capitale nella teoria sociologica: dal capitale economico al capitale sociale. – II: Le teorie del capitale sociale: tra approcci individualisti, olisti e relazionali. – III: Strategie di analisi e misurazione del capitale sociale. – IV: Strategia di analisi relazionale: la ricerca “privato sociale e valorizzazione del capitale sociale nei servizi alla persona”. – V: Strategia di analisi interazionista strutturale: la ricerca “capitale sociale ed efficacia dei servizi di sostegno presso uno sportello pedagogico”. – Conclusioni: Un’ipotesi d’integrazione metodologica. – Appendici. – I: La ricerca “privato sociale e valorizzazione del capitale sociale nei servizi alla persona”. – II: La ricerca “capitale sociale ed efficacia dei servizi di sostegno presso uno sportello pedagogico”. – Bibliografia.

Questo volume fa parte della collana: Testi universitari di Sociologia. Collana diretta da Pierpaolo Donati.

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Posted September, 4, 2007 (thanks to Antonella Noya)

• Emma Clarence and Antonella Noya (eds), Social economy. Building inclusive economies, OECD.

The OECD LEED Programme is about to release a new publication on social economy, "Social  economy. Building inclusive economies.  The book is edited by Antonella Noya and Emma Clarence.

This publication offers new insights into the economic theory of social economy organisations, their role in an evolving political and economic context, and the links to local development and the empowerment of users. Building on theoretical and empirical developments in OECD member countries, the publication also presents the main challenges for the social economy in Central East and South East Europe. Recommendations for action are included.

The book is essential reading for policy-makers, practitioners and scholars interested in the latest theoretical and empirical developments in the field of social economy in OECD member and non-member countries.

• Follow the link to see the table of contents.

• Follow the link to purchase the book at a significantly reduced rate (please note that the cut off date for discounted copies is October 10th).

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Posted September, 4, 2007

• Mike Osborne, Kate Sankey and Bruce Wilson (eds), Social Capital, Lifelong Learning and the Management of Place: An International Perspective, London and New York, Routledge.

This book brings together inter-related research literature from three fields, social capital, place management and lifelong learning regions. It builds on two previous research-based volumes (and a third volume also in planning) on themes within the domain of lifelong learning. In this case it links this area to the management of place and the development of learning at a regional level. Specifically, drawing upon and developing presentations made at the third international PASCAL Observatory (see http://www.obs-pascal.com) conference in October 2005, it presents research on the development and implementation of policies and practices that improve the quality of living and working circumstances at local and regional levels, recognising the importance of social capital and the necessity of partnership for the successful implementation of policy. The book focuses on regional initiatives, particularly those which explicitly embrace lifelong learning, as a framework for developing a systematic planning framework that may encompass administrative, cultural, geographical, physical and/or political perspectives. Like the work of the PASCAL Observatory itself this involves looking at life from the perspective of people and places, rather than separate programs delivered for them.

Contents

Section 1:  1. Introduction (Mike Osborne, Kate Sankey and Bruce Wilson).   2.  The Question of Measurement - The Role of Quantitative Approaches (Ralph Catts). 3.  Qualitative Research Legitimacy: What Counts as ‘Evidence’ For Policy Makers and Researchers Working Together? (Ian Falk and Scott Knight). Section 2: Social Capital  4.  Researching Community Capital for Public Management (Michael Hess and David Adams). 5. Community Efficacy and Social Capital: Modelling how Communities Deliver Outcomes for Members (Sue Kilpatrick and Joan Abbott-Chapman). 6.  Identity, Local Community and the Internet (Duncan Timms). 7.  The Empirics of Social Capital and Economic Development (Fabio Sabatini). Section 3: Learning Regions  8.  Learning Regions, Co-operation and Networks – Network Analysis as a Tool for Evaluating Structures of Interaction in Continuing Education (Wolfgang Jütte). 9.  Communities of Practice and Purpose: Making Knowledge Work in the University-Industry Interface (Tony Hall).   10.  Learning Cape Aspirations: the Idea of a Learning Region and the Use of Indicators in a Middle-Income Country (Shirley Walters).   11.  Lifelong Learning – Institutionalisation and Regulating Mechanisms (Kornelia Eftimova Ilieva).   Section 4: Place Management  12.  Place Centric and Future Oriented Learning in the Local Village Context – Making the Village a Virtual Campus (Erik Wallin). 13.  Cities as engines of growth (Larry Swanson and Pat Inman). 14.  Policy Considerations to Address the Social Implications of Increased Commodification of Public Places (Theresia Williams)   15.  Community, place and learning (Greg Mannion and Lesley Doyle).  16.  Lifelong Learning and Sustainable Development (Corinne van Beilen, Max van der Kamp, Stijn Tebbes and Jacques Zeelen).  Section 5: 17.  Conclusions (Mike Osborne, Kate Sankey and Bruce Wilson).

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Posted September, 4, 2007 (thanks to Nan Lin)

• Nan Lin, and Bonnie Erickson, (Eds), Social Capital. An International Research Program, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

The volume brings together some of the leading scholars around the world working on social capital to study how individuals and groups access and use their social relations and social connections to do better in society in order to achieve their goals.

The volumen includes contributions by Nan Lin, Bonnie Erickson, Martin Van der Gaag, Tom A. B. Snijders, Henk Flap, Yang-chih Fu, Beate Völker, Yanjie Bian, Dan Ao, Hester Moerbeek, Sandra Susan Smith, René Bekkers, Kakuko Miyata, Ken'ichi Ikeda, Tetsuro Kobayashi, Ray-May Hsung, Yi-Jr Lin, Sandra Enns, Todd Malinick, Ralph Matthews, D. B. Tindall, Jeffrey J. Cormier, Marc Porter Magee, Gina Lai, ennifer L. Moren-Cross, Catherine A. Johnson, Róbert Angelusz, Róbert Tardos.

Please follow the link to open the flyer and purchase the book with a 20% discount.

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Posted September, 4, 2007 (thanks to Giampietro Vecchiato)

• Francesco Peraro e Giampietro Vecchiato (a cura di), Responsabilità sociale del territorio. Manuale operativo di sviluppo sostenibile e best practices, Milano, FrancoAngeli.

Raccontare e dimostrare la praticabilità della Responsabilità Sociale nella sua dimensione territoriale (RST) è quello che gli autori si propongono con questa pubblicazione, la prima in Italia che cerca di dare sistematicità, sia teorica che pratica, ad una innovativa modalità di vivere e progettare il territorio in un'ottica di sviluppo sostenibile. Un territorio ricco di capitale sociale, che è dato dall'insieme delle relazioni che si attivano tra la pubblica amministrazione, le imprese, le organizzazioni di rappresentanza e la società civile e dove la fiducia, la comprensione reciproca, i valori condivisi collegano gli attori della comunità in una rete che rende possibile la cooperazione.
Partendo da un inquadramento teorico sulla materia e da come il concetto di responsabilità sociale possa "transitare" dall'azienda verso il territorio, il testo affronta poi il fattore centrale e vitale della RST: la gestione delle relazioni tra i soggetti che devono confrontarsi in modo costruttivo e pensare ad un interesse che può diventare comune, capace di far convivere economia, ambiente e rispetto per la persona.
Il capitolo centrale presenta il primo manuale operativo in grado di dare organicità al processo di governo delle relazioni territoriali per la definizione di un percorso di sviluppo sostenibile. Le buone pratiche, presentate nel capitolo di chiusura, raccontano come questa prospettiva di sviluppo sia già percorribile e possa diventare sempre più "un'utopia possibile".
Il testo è rivolto a tutti coloro che credono che la Responsabilità Sociale di Territorio possa essere un'opportunità di sviluppo e un nuovo fattore di competitività; agli operatori istituzionali, sociali ed economici del territorio; ma anche a tutti coloro che hanno a cuore la propria comunità territoriale e che vogliono impegnarsi per renderla a misura di persona, attenta all'ambiente e alle generazioni future.

Segui il link per acquistare il libro.

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Posted September, 4, 2007 (thanks to Sofia Correia)

• Sofia Correia, Social Capital and Civic Community, the virtuous circle of citizenship. Applying the Putnam model to Caselas residents, Lisbon, DisLivro.

This study compares the social capital level of two populations living in Caselas (Lisbon, Portugal): Housing Cooperative residents and Estado Novo villas residents. The results were also compared with national indicators. Results showed that the two groups had similar social capital levels, due to a proximity relation (namely of family ties). We identified, however, significant differences between Caselas neighbourhood and Portuguese population in general. Caselas residents scored very high in important indicators - such as social trust, social networks and political participation - when compared with national population. We conclude, therefore, that there is social capital in Caselas and that it is not confined to the Cooperative inhabitants, but is also evident among the villas residents.

The book is in Portoguese. The original title is: "Capital Social e Comunidade Cívica, o círculo virtuoso da cidadania. Aplicação do Modelo de Putnam aos residentes do Bairro de Caselas".

Brief Portoguese presentation

Este trabalho compara os níveis de capital social de dois grupos populacionais residentes no Bairro de Caselas: moradores na Cooperativa de Habitação Económica, Caselcoop, e residentes nas moradias construídas pelo Estado Novo. Os resultados dos Habitantes de Caselas foram, também, comparados com alguns indicadores nacionais.

Please follow the link to purchase the book.

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Posted May, 7, 2007 (thanks to Don Tapscott)

• Don Tapscott e Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics. La collaborazione di massa che sta cambiando il mondo, EtasLibri, 2007.

La rapida e universale diffusione di Wikipedia, l’enciclopedia online a cui tutti possono accedere e collaborare liberamente, è diventata la metafora di un nuovo modo di concepire l’economia e il business: la wikinomics.

È il mondo in cui milioni di persone interconnesse tramite e-mail, blog, network, community e chat usano Internet come la prima piattaforma globale di scambio.

È il mondo della collaborazione, della comunità, dell’auto- organizzazione che si trasformano in forza economica collettiva di dimensioni globali.

È il luogo in cui consumatori, lavoratori, fornitori, business partner e anche concorrenti sfruttano la tecnologia per innovare insieme.

Nella wikinomics le scelte di collaborazione sono infinite, per esempio:
• ci si può collegare a una comunità internazionale di scienziati per partecipare alla ricerca sul genoma umano
• si possono produrre clip informative per YouTube o sperimentare nuove idee nella comunità di Second Life
• ci si può unire alla divisione virtuale di R&D di aziende come Procter & Gamble e contribuire allo sviluppo di nuovi prodotti
• si può partecipare al design delle funzioni interattive della prossima BMW.

Questa nuova partecipazione – “peer production” – sta cambiando il modo in cui beni e servizi vengono inventati, prodotti, commercializzati e distribuiti su scala globale. Rappresenta un’enorme opportunità per ogni impresa e ogni individuo.

Con esempi vividi e coinvolgenti, basati su cinque anni di una ricerca senza precedenti, Wikinomics spiega i fondamentali cambiamenti avvenuti nella tecnologia, nella demografia e nel business che permetteranno alle persone di partecipare all’economia come mai prima d’ora.

Per chiunque voglia comprendere le forze che stanno rivoluzionando il business globale.

Segui il link per leggere la recensione de Il Sole 24 Ore.

Segui il link per acquistare il libro.

Segui il link per il sito di Wikinomics.

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Posted May, 7, 2007 (thanks to Johann Graf Lambsdorff)

• Johann Graf Lambsdorff, The Institutional Economics of Corruption and Reform, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Corruption has been a feature of public institutions for centuries yet only relatively recently has it been made the subject of sustained scientific analysis. Lambsdorff shows how insights from institutional economics can be used to develop a better understanding of why corruption occurs and the best policies to combat it. He argues that rather than being deterred by penalties, corrupt actors are more influenced by other factors such as the opportunism of their criminal counterparts and the danger of acquiring an unreliable reputation. This suggests a novel strategy for fighting corruption similar to the invisible hand that governs competitive markets. This strategy - the ‘invisible foot’ - shows that the unreliability of corrupt counterparts induces honesty and good governance even in the absence of good intentions. Combining theoretical research with state-of-the-art empirical investigations, this book will be an invaluable resource for researchers and policy-makers concerned with anti-corruption reform.

• Provides a novel approach to anti-corruption

 • Links reform to evidence using state-of-the-art empirical research

• Numerous case studies delve into the real world of corruption

Please follow the link for further details and to purchase the book.

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Posted May, 7, 2007 (thanks to Tommaso Vitale)

• Valerio Borghi e Tommaso Vitale (eds), Le convenzioni del lavoro, il lavoro delle convenzioni, numero monografico di Sociologia del Lavoro, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2007.

Questo numero monografico di Sociologia del Lavoro intende iniziare un dialogo intenso e dialettico fra la scuola dell’Economia delle convenzioni e la Sociologia economica e del lavoro italiane. L’introduzione (Borghi e Vitale) ricostruisce brevemente la storia dell’Economia delle convenzioni e ne mette in luce i punti di contatto con altre tradizioni di studio dell’economia come scienza politica e morale. La prima parte comprende un testo collettivo di presentazione del programma di ricerca e sei articoli inediti sia di ricercatori che hanno contribuito a fondare l’approccio (Eymard-Duvernay, Favereau, Salais, Thévenot) sia di ricercatori più giovani che hanno contribuito a sviluppare la prospettiva (Bessy, Breviglieri). Gli articoli di questa prima parte si concentrano specificamente su temi legati all’organizzazione del lavoro e al mercato del lavoro. Nella seconda parte, l’Economia delle convenzioni viene discussa criticamente da alcuni dei massimi esponenti del dibattito in sociologia (Pizzorno, Stark, Swedberg, Tilly). In una terza parte, infine, alcuni giovani studiosi italiani di sociologia del lavoro (Bertolin, Chicchi, Fullin, Gosetti) discutono i limiti ed i possibili apporti dell’Economia delle convenzioni alla ricerca sociologica in tema di lavoro.

Segui il link per scaricare l'indice, la quarta di copertina, informazioni sugli autori e gli abstract dei singoli articoli in italiano e in inglese.

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Posted March, 23, 2007 (thanks to Blaz Lenarcic)

• Frane Adam (ed), Social Capital and Governance. Old and New Members of the EU in Comparison. LIT Verlag Münster-Hamburg-Berlin-Wien-London-Zürich.

The intention of the contributions is to focus on some key aspects of social capital in the context of civic participation, governance and civil society at both national and EU levels. The role of new EU members is particularly stressed.

The texts aim to demonstrate how social capital in the form of co-operative norms and actions facilitates the self-organisation of civil society and its internal ability to articulate policy relevant alternative proposals. The efficiency and responsiveness of governance at different - local, national, transnational - levels are also addressed.

Besides theoretical reconsiderations, the authors draws attention to the issue of the quality of data and greater methodological reflexivity.

Please follow the link for further details and to purchase the book.

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Posted March, 23, 2007 (thanks to Frank Thomas)

• Ben Anderson, Malcolm Brynin, Yoel Raban, and Jonathan Gershuny (eds), Information and Communications Technologies in Society: E-Living in a Digital Europe, London: Routledge.

There is a growing body of work examining the ‘consequences’, or more accurately the inter-relationships between information and communications technologies (ICTs) and society at the microsocial (individual, household) level. The vast majority of this work has so far been focused on the US and the subsequent publications have consequently provided predominantly US-centred analyses.

This book will re-dress this balance by providing analyses of the situation in Europe and is associated states and placing the analyses in the context of both European and International research and policy debates. The book uses data from a range of European countries as well as comparisons with Asia and the USA.

The book includes the following chapters treating questions of social capital:

• Heres, Jeroen and Frank Thomas : Civic participation and ICTs

• Anderson, Ben : Social Capital, Quality of Life and Information and Communication Technologies.

• Ling, Rich : Informal Social Capital and ICTs.

Please check Routledge's web site for further details and to purchase the book.

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Posted March, 14, 2007 (thanks to Irene van Staveren)

• Review of Social Economy, special issue on social capital edited by Irene van Staveren, Volume 65, Issue 1, 2007.

This special issue includes articles by Peter Knorringa and Irene van Staveren, Tom Schuller, Bart Nootebom, Bengt Johannisson; Lena Olaison, and Phil Cooke.

Please follow the link to see full contents and purchase the journal on Routledge's web site.

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Posted March, 14, 2007 (thanks to Andrea Salvini)

• Andrea Salvini (a cura di), Analisi delle reti sociali. Teorie, metodi, applicazioni, FrancoAngeli, MIlano, 2007.

Saggi di: G. Conaldi, D. Cordaz, S. Gabbriellini, E. Giuliani, A. Givigliano, E. Mazzoni, S. Milella, G. Rivellini, A. Salvini, L. Savoia, G. Tomei, S. Zaccarin.

Il volume raccoglie una serie di contributi orientati a rappresentare l’utilità conoscitiva dell’analisi delle reti sociali all’interno delle scienze sociali e si articola sostanzialmente in tre parti: nella prima si discutono gli aspetti teorico-metodologici più rilevanti della social network analysis, in particolare quelli legati ai concetti di relazione, di strutture di rete e di dato relazionale; nella seconda vengono descritti gli aspetti metodologici più rilevanti e caratterizzanti della prospettiva di rete; nella terza, infine, vengono presentate esperienze empiriche di diversa natura in cui sono stati applicati strumenti di raccolta e di elaborazione dei dati tipici dell'analisi di rete. Il testo si caratterizza per l’interdisciplinarietà dei contributi e delle applicazioni empiriche, che spaziano dalla sociologia all’economia, dalla politica sociale alla psicologia sociale, realizzati da studiosi e ricercatori di varie università italiane, ed è rivolto sia a coloro che si avvicinano per la prima volta all’analisi delle reti sociali, sia a coloro che desiderano approfondirne gli elementi tecnico-metodologici più recenti, come ad esempio, l’adozione dell’analisi multilivello e del p* nelle procedure di analisi dei dati.

Segui il link per ulteriori dettagli e consultare l'indice del volume.

Segui il link per acquistare il libro presso il sito della casa editrice.

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Posted March, 14, 2007 (thanks to Stefano Martelli)

• Stefano Martelli (a cura di), La comunicazione del terzo settore nel mezzogiorno, FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2007.

La comunicazione sociale si occupa delle relazioni “mediate” da vecchie e nuove tecnologie e cerca di stabilire se queste rafforzino ed estendano il capitale sociale presente in una data società. In altre parole essa vede i media come mezzi capaci di promuovere relazioni basate sulla fiducia, sulla solidarietà, sulla cooperazione e sulla reciprocità non finalizzata allo scambio immediato.
È, questa, non solo una definizione, ma anche un programma d’azione, come dimostrano gli scritti raccolti in questo volume, il quale presenta i risultati di quattro ricerche sociologiche, svolte con metodologie quantitative e qualitative nel biennio 2004-2005 nelle due città principali e in altre aree del Mezzogiorno. Gli autori hanno inteso non solo delineare l’insieme delle attività di comunicazione effettuate dalle Organizzazioni di Terzo Settore operanti nel Meridione d’Italia, ma anche svolgere un intervento concreto in loro favore –si pensi al Portale telematico per la comunicazione del Terzo Settore istituito prima a Palermo e poi a Napoli–, al  fine di sostenerne gli sforzi, migliorarne la competenza comunicativa e in tal modo –era questo l’auspicio!– aumentare pure il capitale sociale locale.
In breve anche sul versante degli studi “meridionalistici” una definizione di comunicazione sociale, intesa come l’insieme delle relazioni “mediate” che favoriscono la crescita di capitale sociale secondario, appare quanto mai appropriata. Essa schiude una prospettiva di assoluta rilevanza sia in termini propriamente conoscitivi, sia sul versante pratico, quale premessa a interventi mirati per aiutare la società civile meridionale e le organizzazioni di Terzo Settore a crescere e a (ri)produrre il tessuto di relazioni socialmente positive che facilita lo sviluppo del territorio.

Questo volume presenta i risultati ottenuti dall’Unità di Ricerca costituitasi nell’Università degli Studi di Palermo al fine di realizzare il progetto Comunicazione, valori e terzo settore. La produzione del capitale sociale nelle organizzazioni di terzo settore dell’Italia meridionale, nel quadro istituzionale assicurato dal programma di rilevante interesse nazionale Prin 2003, dal titolo Terzo settore e valorizzazione del capitale sociale in Italia (Coord. naz. Prof. Pierpaolo Donati, Università di Bologna).

con scritti di: Ignazia Bartholini, Gianna Cappello, Giacomo Di Gennaro, Martina Marongiu, M. Elisa Marrone, Laura Mistretta, Stefano Martelli, Gianluca Pellerito, Gabriella Polizzi e Sandro Stanzani.

Segui il link per acquistare il libro presso il sito della casa editrice.

Clicca qui per scaricare il flyer con l'indice del volume e per richiedere una copia saggio per l'adozione .

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Posted March, 14, 2007 (thanks to myself)

• Claudio Cecchi e Fabio Sabatini, Il capitale sociale per la pianificazione e la gestione dei servizi pubblici, Officina Edizioni, Roma.

Una delle ragioni a sostegno del processo di devolution delle politiche sociali in corso in Italia è la possibilità di integrare le organizzazioni della società civile nel sistema di offerta dei servizi pubblici, con effetti positivi in termini di efficienza ed equità. È opinione diffusa che le istituzioni nonprofit, come le organizzazioni volontarie e le cooperative sociali, possano svolgere un ruolo rilevante nella fornitura di una vasta gamma di servizi, grazie al maggiore radicamento nel territorio e alle motivazioni più forti delle risorse umane che impiegano. Sotto questo punto di vista la riforma del welfare può essere intesa come un meccanismo in grado di attivare il “capitale sociale” delle regioni italiane, mediante una serie di stimoli, normativi e di policy, provenienti dal settore pubblico. Per comprendere meglio quale potrebbe essere l’impatto della riforma sui sistemi locali di welfare, questo volume propone un nuovo metodo di misurazione del capitale sociale delle regioni italiane, con particolare attenzione per il caso di studio costituito dalla Maremma grossetana, e attraverso un’analisi empirica effettua una prima valutazione del legame esistente tra capitale sociale, imprese sociali e qualità dello sviluppo economico in Italia. Le regioni in cui non esiste una significativa tradizione in termini di partecipazione civica e cooperazione sociale rischiano di assorbire il ridimensionamento del ruolo dello stato nel settore dei servizi pubblici mediante un forte sbilanciamento del mercato a favore del settore privato for profit, con effetti distributivi potenzialmente perversi. È facile prevedere che, nelle aree povere di capitale sociale, la riforma possa diventare un fattore di deterioramento della coesione sociale. Nelle regioni più ricche di capitale sociale invece la riforma può costituire un mezzo per rafforzare il ruolo della società civile e i processi di partecipazione sociale, aumentando la coesione e migliorando l’efficienza dei servizi.

Segui il link per acquistare il libro.

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Posted February, 14, 2007 (thanks to Ric Uslaner)

• Eric M. Uslaner, The Bulging Pocket and the Rule of Law: Corruption, Inequality, and Trust (under contract to cambridge university Press).

The draft chapters and the full book manuscript, The Bulging Pocket and the Rule of Law: Corruption, Inequality, and Trust (under contract to Cambridge University Press), are available on Eric Uslaner's corruption web page. 

• Download the book prospectus.

• Download the first paper, The Bulging Pocket and the Rule of Law.

• Download drafts of Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, the references, the tables for these chapters, and the appendix tables.

Eric M. Uslaner is Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland--College Park, where he has taught since 1975. In 1997-1998 he was Distinguished University Research Fellow at the University of Maryland and in 1981-82 he was Fulbright Lecturer and Visiting Professor, Departments of American Studies and Political Science, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. Professor Uslaner received his B.A. from Brandeis University cum laude with Honors in Politics in 1968 and his M.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) in Political Science from Indiana University.   In 2006 he was appointed the first Senior Research Fellow at the Center for American Law and Political Science at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing, China.

You can visit Eric M. Uslaner's web page for further information on his research activity and to download his latest papers.

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Posted January, 9, 2007 (thanks to Joseph D. Lewandowski)

• Rosalind Edwards, Jane Franklin and Janet Holland, Assessing Social Capital: Concept, Policy and Practice, Taylor and Francis.

Social capital is a key concept in academic research and policymaking internationally. It focuses attention on social relationships, values, and access to resources in families, communities, regions and nations. But does the concept, with its focus on particular aspects of social life and the thrust of its influence on policy initiatives, hide more than it illuminates? Is it even harmful? Can social capital ideas be amended or adapted to bring other issues into view, or are there alternative concepts that are better able to address contemporary social, economic and political life?

This edited collection brings together contributions, including from internationally renowned researchers, that assess social capital - as a theoretical concept, its shaping of policy development, and its practices in research and everyday life. Some reveal the conceptual lacks and policy drawbacks of social capital, and put forward alternatives. Others pursue mainstream models and their adaptation.

Please check the flyer for further details and to order the book.

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Posted January, 9, 2007 (thanks to Norman Longworth)

• Norman Longworth, Learning Cities, Learning Regions, Learning Communities. Lifelong learning and local government, Taylor and Francis.

This indispensable and visionary book explores the mental and social landscape of the city of today and tomorrow. It describes the way in which organisations and people act, interact, learn and live with and among each other; the crucial role of local administrations, learning providers, workplaces and other stakeholders in creating a better vision of the future. ‘Learning Cities, Learning Regions, Learning Communities’ addresses the urgent need for a guide to the principles and practices of lifelong learning for everyone in the cities, towns and regions of every country. Among the many stimulating topics are:

What learning cities and regions are, how they are developing and the reasons why they are so important in today’s world

The many practical tools and techniques usable by cities, towns, regions and their stakeholders to energise participation, engage people and help create a culture of learning  

The local, national and global role of cities and regions to help combat the blinkered ignorance, binding poverty and militant terror that aims to engulf us all

Please follow the link for further details and to order the book.

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Posted January, 2, 2007 (thanks to Hans Westlund)

• Hans Westlund, Social Capital in the Knowledge Economy
Theory and Empirics, Springer.

This book analyzes the social capital of the growing knowledge economy. The theoretical part discusses social capital as an economic concept, its relation to traditional capital theory and its role as a spatial externality. A theory of the social capital of the enterprise is developed and social capital’s importance for entrepreneurship, innovation and regional development is analyzed. The empirical part compares some central aspects of social capital of three different socio-economic systems: the US, Japan and Sweden, regarding labor market relations, innovation systems and the civil societies. The social capitals of the knowledge intensive biotech industries of the three countries are studied and compared. Finally, a number of issues for further research are discussed.

Contents: Introduction.- Social Capital as an Economic Concept.- Social Capital as Capital in the Economic Sense.- Social Capital as a Spatial Externality.- The Social Capital of the Enterprise.- Social Capital and Entrepreneurship.- Social Capital and Innovation: Actors and Policies.- Why Compare Sweden, Japan and USA/California?- Social Capital Expressed in the Form of Labor Market Relations.- Social Capital and Institutions for Growth, Innovation and Renewal.- Civil Society’s Social Capital.- The Knowledge-Intensive Biotech Industry: Structures and Policies.- The Biotech Industry’s Social Capital: An Empirical Study.- Some Forward Looking Comments.

Please follow the link to check the flyer and order the book.

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Posted January, 2, 2007 (thanks to Jan van Deth)

• Jan W. van Deth, José Ramón Montero, Anders Westholm, Citizenship and Involvement in European Democracies. A Comparative Analysis, London and New York: Routledge, 2006.

This unique study brings together a team of leading European researchers to examine the results of a cross-national analysis of citizenship and participation among citizens in twelve European democracies. Research on the future and quality of contemporary democracy is usually restricted to focus either on political participation, on particular aspects of citizenship, or on
social activities, exclusively. This new book offers the first empirical investigation of the relationships between social and political involvement, and between ‘small-scale’ and ‘large-scale’ democracies. Citizenship and Involvement in European Democracies offers representative samples of the populations in a selection of European countries between 2000-2002, including: Denmark, Germany, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. It provides new theoretical insights and offers a broad conceptualisation of citizenship, stimulating the ongoing discussions about the problems and challenges of democratic political systems.

This book has a companion volume entitled Social Capital and Associations in European Democracies edited by William A. Maloney and Sigrid Roßteutscher (Routledge, 2006). Both volumes will be of great interest to students and researchers
of European politics, comparative politics and sociology.

Please check the book's flyer to see contents and order the book.

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Posted March, 11, 2006 (thanks to Gerard Breeman)

• Hans-Hermann Höhmann and Friederike Welter, Trust And Entrepreneurship. A West–East Perspective, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2005.

‘Free market ideology claims that entrepreneurship thrives on competition, but cooperation and trust are also important in fostering business growth. Where legal institutions are weak, corruption and criminal enterprise can flourish. Honest businessmen have to rely on personal networks, increasing the risk of collusion. This path-breaking book explores the “light” and “dark” sides of trust. By comparing transition economies with mature market economies, the authors highlight the crucial contribution of trust to business performance.’
– Mark Casson, University of Reading, UK

In this new book, international scholars investigate trust and its role in relation to the entrepreneurial behaviour of small firms across a variety of institutional and cultural settings (from the publisher's web site).

Contents: Introduction Part I: Concepts, Evolution, Measurements Part II: Trust and Entrepreneurial Behaviour in Transition Environments Part III: Trust and Entrepreneurial Behaviour in Mature Market Economies Index Contributors: I. Akimova, R. Bachmann, L. Burroni, A. Chepurenko, G. Dei Ottati, H.-H. Höhmann, D. Houser, T. Kautonen, B. Lageman, J. Leland, X. Li, F. Lyon, E. Malieva, H. Nuissl, V. Radaev, J. Shachat, A. Schwarz, G. Schwödiauer, D. Smallbone, G.T. Svendsen, V. Tonoyan, H. van Ees, U. Venesaar, F. Welter.

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Posted March, 11, 2006 (thanks to Gerard Breeman)

• Katinka Bijlsma-Frankema and Rosalinde Klein Woolthuis, Trust Under Pressure. Empirical Investigations of Trust and Trust Building in Uncertain Circumstances, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

This book challenges the current thinking on trust largely based on studies in stable contexts, by presenting new empirical studies of trust and trust building in a number of less stable, less institutionalized settings. These contexts are gaining in prominence given the globalization and virtualization of organizational relations, development of high velocity markets, and the growing importance of intangible resources. The empirical studies presented in this book have been conducted by scholars with a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds, employing insights from a diverse range of fields including organization theory, knowledge management, sociology, psychology, economics, management, human resources management and communication sciences. Data from twelve different countries, including Eastern and Western European countries, Mexico, Tanzania and Western European countries is analysed, illustrating relations within and between organizations and nations. These organizations exist in environments that can be typified as uncertain because institutional, taken-for-granted or rational bases for control and trust are lacking. Several fresh insights into how trust is built and sustained in uncertain circumstances are presented, and relevant yet challenging directions for future research are proposed. Contributors: K. Bijlsma-Frankema, K. Blomqvist, B. Busacca, H. Caljé, S. Castaldo, D. de Gilder, A. Hoecht, P. Kerkhof, R. Klein Woolthuis, T.M. Kühlmann, G. Möllering, E. Rocco, B.W. Rosendaal, A. Rus, M. Tillmar, G. van de Bunt, N. Yahstal- Lapaix.

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Posted March, 11, 2006 (thanks to Sandra Franke)

• Policy Research Initiative, Social Capital as a Public Policy Tool, Pricy Council of the Government of Canada, Ottawa, 2005.

The Policy Research Initiative (PRI) of the Government of Canada has recently released the final publications from its social capital project.

What is social capital? Who benefits – and who does not? Is there a role for government? How can we measure it? Examining the potential of the concept of social capital to inform policy development and evaluation, the publications offer a clear framework for the analysis of the concept, identify policy and program areas where social capital makes a difference, and offer a strategic set of recommendations for testing new approaches, improved measurement, and policy action.

On the PRI's web site, the following publications are available for free download:

• Social Capital: A Tool for Public Policy. Briefing Note.
Provides a concise and accessible executive summary of the Project's findings and recommendations.

• Social Capital as a Public Policy Tool. Project Report.
Provides a detailed synthesis of the activities, findings, and recommendations.

• Social Capital in Action. Thematic Policy Studies.
Provides an investigation of the role of social capital in eight specific policy areas: poverty reduction, aging well, settlement of new immigrants, education outcomes of Aboriginal youth, youth civic engagement, community crime prevention, policing in First Nations communities, community development.

• Measurement of Social Capital. Reference Document for Public Policy Research, Development, and Evaluation.
Provides a series of indicators, measurement tools and methodological strategies, to investigate social capital in a public policy context

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Posted March, 7, 2006 (thanks to Brenda O'Neill)

• Brenda O’Neill and Elisabeth Gidengil, Gender and Social Capital. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Since the publication of Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone, there has been much scholarly literature devoted to the concept of social capital. However, only a small portion of that literature is devoted to its relationship with gender. In Gender and Social Capital, leading scholars-including Pippa Norris, Ron Inglehart, and Theda Skocpol-provide an in-depth analysis of two fundamental and hitherto neglected questions: What can gender tell us about social capital? And what can social capital tell us about women and politics? Gender and Social Capital is essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between gender and civic engagement (from the publisher's web site).

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Posted March, 7, 2006 (thanks to Dirk Hoerder)

• Dirk Hoerder, Irina Schmitt and Yvonne Hébert, Negotiating Transcultural Lives. Belongings and Social Capital among Youth in Comparative Perspective, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005.

Societies of the early 21st century are composed of many intersecting cultures, defined by status as citizens or recent immigrants and other societal hierarchies. Past-oriented segments of state populations decry the loss of essentialized national identities. What is lacking in this set-up of the
debate is the young generation. This volume brings together European and Canadian studies in sociology, history, and cultural studies (from the book's back cover).

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Posted February, 9, 2006 (thanks to Mike Osborne)

• Chris Duke, Mike Osborne and Bruce Wilson, Rebalancing the social and economic. Learning, partnership and place, NIACE (National Institute of Adult Continuing Education), Leicester, 2005.

This book examines the challenges facing those who make and implement social policy at a time when free-trade economics reign supreme. It draws on linked ideas of social capital and the management of place, and presents international perspectives from a diverse range of countries, to question the domination of the economic and call for a new balance in making policy and measuring what is achieved.

Lifelong learning is said to be vital for a ‘knowledge society’ in the ‘new economy’. But looking at knowledge and the economy alone short-changes us, making economic growth not a means to happiness, but an end. The book moves from applied philosophical analysis in Canada, through debate about social capital and ‘the political’ in Australia, to consideration of governance for sustained renewal in Finland. It examines how these concepts apply as guides to action in a leading English local authority, Kent, and considers the role of universities in developing learning regions in South Africa’s Western Cape Province. It concludes with the ‘mother of all challenges’, sustainability, with which economic growth must reach a rapprochement if we are to survive.

The book should appeal to the widest possible range of social planners at all levels of government, as well as to scholars in the fields of social studies, management and administration. It is relevant to those concerned with lifelong learning as this spills over the walls of the classroom and the academy. It is also a book for all of us who, as citizens, care about how we succeed or fail to govern ourselves well, and how we learn from our mistakes (from the publisher's web site).

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Posted February, 9, 2006 (thanks to Ernesto Noronha)

• Ernesto Noronha, Ethnicity in Industrial Organizations: Case of Two Organizations in Mumbai, Jaipur, Rawat Publications, 2005.

This book examines the dynamics of ethnicity at the workplace – an issue that has been largely ignored in the Indian context. The belief that industrial development obliterates the relevance of ethnic leanings, promoting instead a rational, secular and universalistic outlook, is a contested one. This book, based on an empirical investigation of the interface between ethnicity and industrial life in two organizations in Mumbai, describes the obvious and subtle manifestations as well as the implications of this complex social phenomenon. Through its focus on the processes of recruitment and promotion in the studied organizations, the book lends support to the view that ethnic affiliation remains an inextricable part of the workplace. Even contemporary organizations with a better educated workforce are not free of the manipulations of basic group identity used by members of various ethnic groups to their advantage. Through its insights into the implications of the ethnic-industrial interface, the book emphasizes the significance of managing diversity at work. (From the Book's front flap).

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Posted January, 16, 2006 (thanks to Karen Cook)

• Karen S. Cook, Russell Hardin and Margaret Levi, Cooperation without Trust?, New York, Sage.

Some social theorists claim that trust is necessary for the smooth functioning of a democratic society. Yet many recent surveys suggest that trust is on the wane in the United States. Does this foreshadow trouble for the nation? In Cooperation Without Trust? Karen Cook, Russell Hardin, and Margaret Levi argue that a society can function well in the absence of trust. Though trust is a useful element in many kinds of relationships, they contend that mutually beneficial cooperative relationships can take place without it.

Cooperation Without Trust? employs a wide range of examples illustrating how parties use mechanisms other than trust to secure cooperation. Concerns about one’s reputation, for example, could keep a person in a small community from breaching agreements. State enforcement of contracts ensures that business partners need not trust one another in order to trade. Similarly, monitoring worker behavior permits an employer to vest great responsibility in an employee without necessarily trusting that person. Cook, Hardin, and Levi discuss other mechanisms for facilitating cooperation absent trust, such as the self-regulation of professional societies, management compensation schemes, and social capital networks. In fact, the authors argue that a lack of trust - or even outright distrust - may in many circumstances be more beneficial in creating cooperation. Lack of trust motivates people to reduce risks and establish institutions that promote cooperation. A stout distrust of government prompted America’s founding fathers to establish a system in which leaders are highly accountable to their constituents, and in which checks and balances keep the behavior of government officials in line with the public will. Such institutional mechanisms are generally more dependable in securing cooperation than simple faith in the trustworthiness of others.

Cooperation Without Trust? suggests that trust may be a complement to governing institutions, not a substitute for them. Whether or not the decline in trust documented by social surveys actually indicates an erosion of trust in everyday situations, this book argues that society is not in peril. Even if we were a less trusting society, that would not mean we are a less functional one (from the publisher's web site).

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Posted January, 16, 2006 (thanks to Susan Rose-Ackerman)

• Susan Rose-Ackerman, From Elections to Democracy. Building Accountable Government in Hungary and Poland, published by Cambridge University Press, 2005.

The countries of Central Europe in the first round for admission to the European Union have all established constitutional, electoral democracies and market economies. However, much remains to be done to achieve fully consolidated democratic states. This study documents the weaknesses of public oversight and participation in policymaking in Hungary and Poland, two of the most advanced countries in the region. It discusses five alternative routes to accountability including European Union oversight, constitutional institutions such as presidents and courts, devolution to lower-level governments, the use of neo-corporatist bodies, and open-ended participation rights. It urges more emphasis on the fifth option, public participation. Case studies of the environmental movement in Hungary and of student groups in Poland illustrate these general points. The book reviews the United States’ experience of open-ended public participation and draws some lessons for the transition countries from the strengths and weaknesses of the American system. (from the publisher's flyer).

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Posted January, 16, 2006 (thanks to Susan Rose-Ackerman)

• János Kornai and Susan Rose-Ackerman, Building a Trustworthy State in Post-Socialist Transition, New York, Palgrave MacMillan, 2004.

Bringing together a top flight set of contributors, this book considers the problems and prospects for creating trustworthy and reliable public institutions since the transition from socialism in Central and Eastern Europe. The focus is on "second generation" issues of democratic consolidation in states where the basic structures of the market and the state have been established. The contributors raise important issues, such as corruption and participation, largely neglected during the first stage of the transition and that are of growing importance as several countries in the region move toward entry into the European Union. Highlighting problems and prospects of democratization with comparative import to other newly democratizing areas, this volume draws on the experience of those who have lived through and studied the transition and contrasts their insights with those of generalist scholars who study government accountability and democracy (from the publisher's web site).

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Posted January, 16, 2006 (thanks to Susan Rose-Ackerman)

• János Kornai, Bo Rothstein, and Susan Rose-Ackerman, Creating Social Trust in Post-Socialist Transition, New York, Palgrave MacMillan.

One of the central characteristics of socialist states and societies has been the absence of trust--between the state and the citizens, and then among citizens themselves. The process of developing trust is thus a major issue facing post-Socialist countries, and this book brings together a group of leading scholars to examine barriers to and bulwarks of trust in theoretical, cross-national, and topical perspectives. From the distinctive paradox of illegal organizations--such as the Mafiya--relying on trust within but undermining it without, to the effects of transparency, the authors examine the bases of trust and the effects of its presence or absence. Throughout the analysis is grounded in the interaction of individuals and their social, political, and economic environments (from the publisher's web site).

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Posted January, 15, 2006 (thanks to Herrington J. Bryce)

• Herrington J. Bryce, Players in the Public Policy Process. Nonprofits as Social Capital and Agents, New York, Palgrave MacMillan.

This book focuses on the nonprofit organization as a social capital asset and agent in all phases of the public policy process--from influencing political parties, platforms, and choice of candidates to the formulation and implementation of public policy including the facilitation of transactions. This book demonstrates the universal utility of the principal-agent paradigm for analyzing nonprofits in foreign or domestic policy, sectarian or faith-based, scientific or social as well as the regulatory (not just participatory) powers of these organizations over market and nonmarket actions as a matter of public, collective policy. Placing the nonprofit in a principal-agent framework, the book emphasizes such topics as sources of conflict in public expectations and organizational performance, the moral hazard and benefits of organizational self-interest, tax exemption as compensation or a reservation price rather than just a subsidy, the role of social service organizations as managers of adverse social risks, and their inherent competitive advantage (even when faith-based) over firms as agents of choice for social service contracts from a strictly business perspective. It also deals with the role of nonprofits in governance such as over common pool resources, the moral hazard of policy, and the probability that the nonprofit could be an agent of distortions. This book goes beyond the economics of market failure and adds political, policy and administrative sciences, economic sociology, and the theory of contracts to encapsulate these organizations as agents and essential players in any open and democratic public policy process (from the Publisher's web site).

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Posted December, 8, 2005 (thanks to Fabio Corbisiero)

• Corbisiero, Fabio (a cura di), Le trame della povertà. L'esperienza del reddito minimo di inserimento nei reticoli d'impoverimento sociale, Milano, FrancoAngeli.

Dopo decenni in cui il dibattito pubblico sulla povertà sembrava concentrato prevalentemente su questioni di misurazione degli indicatori economici e sulla definizione di "soglie" si era sviluppata una diffusa insoddisfazione per la mancata rilevazione di un più generale livello di analisi del disagio sociale.
L'emersione del concetto di esclusione sociale, che ha evidenziato un'area molto più vasta di derive rispetto alla mera povertà economica, ha motivato nuovi programmi di ricerca e modelli di analisi a più ampio spettro sia a livello nazionale che europeo; ciò ha prodotto, specialmente negli studi sulle famiglie povere, lo sviluppo di nuovi indicatori del disagio sociale che comprendono non soltanto la povertà economica ma anche le condizioni abitative, di salute, di istruzione fino a questioni più complesse che concernono i diritti di cittadinanza, il benessere psico-fisico, le reti sociali di aiuto.
Il lavoro che viene proposto in questo volume si inserisce nelle ricerche e nel dibattito più recente sulle questioni di politica sociale e - più in particolare - pone il focus sull'esperienza delle famiglie povere (o a rischio di esclusione sociale) durante la sperimentazione del Reddito Minimo di Inserimento (RMI) in Italia. Ne risulta un'immagine duplice dell'applicazione della misura messo ben in evidenza dal concetto di "meridionalizzazione" del RMI e dalla lettura comparativa dei dati di sfondo che ripropone, ancora una volta, la discrasìa fra Nord e Sud del Paese (dal sito web dell'editore).

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Posted December, 2, 2005 (thanks to Benedetto Gui)

• Benedetto Gui and Robert Sugden (Eds), Economics and Social Interaction. Accounting for Intepersonal Relations, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005

Economics and Social Interaction is a fresh attempt to overcome the traditional inability of economics to deal with interpersonal phenomena that occur within the sphere of markets and productive organizations. It makes use of traditional economic concepts for understanding interpersonal events, while venturing beyond those concepts to give a better account of personalised interactions. In contrast to other books, Economics and Social Interaction offers the reader a rigorous effort at extending economic analysis to a difficult field in a consistent manner, sensitive to insights from other behavioural and social sciences. This collection represents an important contribution to a growing research agenda in the social sciences (from the publisher's presentation).

• Vai alla pagina sulla presentazione del libro a Milano presso l'Università di Milano Bicocca.

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Posted May, 6, 2005 (thanks to Bo Rothstein)

• Bo Rothstein, Social Traps and the Problem of Trust, Cambridge University Press.

A ‘social trap’ is a situation where individuals, groups or organisations are unable to cooperate owing to mutual distrust and lack of social capital, even where cooperation would benefit all. Examples include civil strife, pervasive corruption, ethnic discrimination, depletion of natural resources and misuse of social insurance systems. Much has been written attempting to explain the problem, but rather less material is available on how to escape it. In this book, Bo Rothstein explores how social capital and social trust are generated and what governments can do about it. He argues that it is the existence of universal and impartial political institutions together with public policies which enhance social and economic equality that creates social capital. By introducing the theory of collective memory into the discussion, Rothstein makes an empirical and theoretical claim for how universal institutions can be established (from the publisher's presentation).

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Posted October, 18, 2005 (thanks to Johann Graf Lambsdorf)

• Transparency International, Transparency International (TI) 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), Passau University and Transparency International, 2005.

On the Internet Centre for Corruption Research web site it is available the main table containing ranks, scores and further data for each country. All data for the 159 countries in the TI-CPI can also be retrieved in the form of an Excel-Sheet . This sheet provides data also for another 35 countries. Because there were less than three sources available, these 35 countries are measured less reliably and not included in the official list.

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Posted October, 18, 2005 (thanks to Blaz Lenarcic and Frane Adam)

• Frane Adam, Matej Makarovic, Borut Roncevic, Matevz Tomsic (Eds), The Challenges of Sustained Development: The Role of Socio-Cultural Factors in East-Central Europe, Budapest: Central European University Press, 2005.

How wide is the gap between the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe and the most developed nations? How can it be narrowed?
This book addresses these questions in a comprehensive way. It delves into the inter-relations between the major factors of developmental performance and looks at their effects on sustained societal development. A vast amount of statistical data on social and economic factors in selected European countries is grouped into 31 easy-to-handle tables and analyzed along the following constructs: civilizational competence; social capital; cognitive mobilization; quality of governance; entrepreneurial spirit; social cohesion; and openness to the international environment.
The analysis, based on theories and indicators of development, reveals that, in spite of the progress since the fall of Communism, countries in Central and Eastern Europe still fall short of having been transformed into propulsive, "vibrant" societies, with intellectually open-minded, socially and technologically innovative environments (From the Book's front flap).

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Posted September, 25, 2005 (thanks to Xiangmin Chen)

• Xiangming Chen, As Borders Bend: Transnational Spaces on the Pacific Rim, Series: Pacific Formations: Global Relations in Asian and Pacific Perspectives, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham, MD.

This innovative book examines the complexities of de-bordering and re-bordering through a structured comparison of seven transborder subregions along the western Pacific Rim and an extended comparative analysis of the U.S.-Mexico border and several European border regions. Xiangming Chen offers a synthetic explanation for the complex and diverse processes and outcomes of economic growth, social transformation, infrastructure development, and urban landscapes in the new transnational spaces around the porous and mutated borders on the Pacific Rim and beyond (From the publisher's web site).

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Posted August, 20, 2005 (thanks to Nelson Lara)

• Nelson Lara, Capital social, partidos polìticos y abstenciòn electoral, Ergatorre Libros, Madrid.

Explorar las complejas relaciones entre cultura política, capital social, democracia y gobernabilidad es uno de los grandes retos de la ciencia política contemporánea, especialmente con miras a los países que se encuentran en procesos de transformación
como es el caso de Venezuela. El estudio de Nelson Lara sobre la asociación entre capital social y desencanto político abre pistas para comprender esas relaciones.
(Friedrich Welsch, from the book's flyer)

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Posted August, 20, 2005 (thanks to Robert D. Putnam)

• David Halpern, Social Capital, Polity Press, Cambridge

The concept of 'social capital' is currently the focus of an explosion of interest in the research and policy community. It refers to the social networks, informal structures and norms that facilitate individual and collective action. This explosion of interest is driven by a growing body of evidence that social capital has enormous effects on economic growth, health, crime and even the effectiveness and functioning of governments. David Halpern provides a guide through the many and sometimes confusing definitions of social capital. The various literatures examining the empirical consequences of social capital are brought together from across academic disciplines to demonstrate a remarkable range of effects. A model is then presented to account for the causal pathways that create social capital, and that lead from social capital to its outcomes. International evidence is used to establish whether social capital is on the decline, and the thorny question of whether social capital can harm or exclude is also examined. Finally, the policy implications are considered, including how social capital can be measured, created and utilised. Social Capital offers an overview of one of the most important and exciting areas to emerge out of the social sciences in many years. It assumes no previous knowledge of the literature or statistics, and will be of interest to students and researchers in politics, sociology, social administration and social psychology (from the book's flyer).

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Posted June, 29, 2005 (thanks to John Field)

• John Field, Social capital and lifelong learning, The Policy Press, Bristol, UK.

Social capital and lifelong learning are central to current policy concerns both in the UK and internationally. This book confirms the significance of social capital as an analytical
tool, while challenging the basis on which current policy is being developed. It:
• offers a wealth of evidence on a topic that has become central to contemporary
government;
• provides a detailed empirical investigation of the relationship between social capital, knowledge creation and lifelong learning;
• relates the findings to wider policy debates;

The book is aimed at researchers in education, policy studies and urban studies, as well as those concerned with an understanding of contemporary policy concerns.

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Posted June, 29, 2005, (thanks to Andrea Salvini)

• Andrea Salvini, L'analisi delle reti sociali. Risorse e meccanismi, Edizioni Plus, Università di Pisa, 2005.

Il volume si occupa di alcune delle più feconde applicazioni dell'analisi delle reti sociali (social network analysis) in sociologia, di valutarne le implicazioni sia sul lato teorico che su quello metodologico, e di prospettare i percorsi attuali di innovazione che ne prefigurano ulteriori avanzamenti e ne legittimano la sua diffusione, soprattutto all'estero. Nel testo vengono inizialmente discusse le premesse concettuali dell'analisi delle reti sociali inserendole nel quadro più ampio delle prospettive teoriche della sociologia; successivamente si presentano le modalità di costruzione di un disegno di ricerca empirica coerente con quelle premesse concettuali e si descrivono i più consolidati strumenti di analisi dei dati relazionali. Il libro si sofferma, infine, su alcune delle più rilevanti ed attuali aree di applicazione dell'analisi delle reti sociali in ambito sociologico, in particolare per lo studio del capitale sociale e dell'esclusione sociale.

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Posted June, 28, 2005 (thans to Luigi Tronca)

• Michel Forsé e Luigi Tronca (a cura di), Capitale sociale e analisi dei reticoli, Sociologia e Politiche Sociali, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2005.

La centralità del concetto di capitale sociale nella riflessione sociologica contemporanea spinge a ricercare un confronto sostanziale tra i molteplici approcci teorici che hanno tentato di definirlo. Il loro difficile dialogo e l’impossibilità di giungere alla sedimentazione di un corpus unico di conoscenze condivise deve condurre a individuare delle prime possibili aree di contatto tra le diverse concezioni di capitale sociale. Il concetto di social network costituisce probabilmente un buon punto di partenza. In questo volume, si presentano alcuni degli approcci reticolari allo studio del capitale sociale. Lo scopo è quello di mostrare come si possa giungere a definire più rigorosamente il concetto, accompagnando alla riflessione teorica la creazione di una valida strumentazione per lo studio della realtà sociale. Il volume rappresenta quindi una concreta proposta di lettura del capitale sociale a partire dalla struttura delle relazioni. Tale interpretazione viene applicata a casi empirici.

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Posted June, 3, 2005 (thanks to Eric Uslaner)

• Sam Pizzigatti, Greed and Good: Understanding and Overcomng the Inequality That Limits Our Lives, New York, Apex Press, Council on International & Public Affairs.

This extraordinary book begins with a detailed demolition of the trickle-down case for inequality. Pizzigati, a labor economist, also makes the case that vast accumulations of wealth neither create effective incentives to work harder nor ensure that the appropriate level of savings will be forthcoming. The author continues in the second part by arguing that inequality encourages inefficiency and has tremendous social costs. He compellingly asserts that a less unequal society would benefit the very rich as well as the poor. The final section begins with a historical analysis of the debates over inequality in the US from the early days of the republic to the present. The book ends with a short discussion about the possibility of creating a more equitable society. No brief description can adequately describe the mass of valuable insight and information contained within this volume. The footnotes alone run more than 80 pages. References come from the popular press as well as professional journals. Pizzigati tells his story well and on a level easily accessible to undergraduates, while still providing material that advanced researchers will find valuable. This book deserves the highest possible recommendation. Summing Up: Essential. Public, academic, and professional library collections.
(from a review in the March 2005 issue of the American Library Association journal, Choice, by economist Michael Perelman).

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Posted before June 2005

• Vittorio Cotesta e Massimo Pendenza, 2004, Europei mediterranei, Liguori.

• Massimo Pendenza, 2001, Le organizzazioni di volontariato in Campania, Liguori.

• Massimo Pendenza, 2000, Cooperazione, fiducia e capitale sociale, Liguori.

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