Social capital as the substantial concept of social network research : A methodology for a systematic literature review

ISBN-13: 9783659249655 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 184 str.

Angela Delli Paoli

Opis

The book provides a synthesis of the very heterogeneous social network literature. In doing so, it proposes a research methodology for a systematic literature review: Content Analysis in conjunction with Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Cluster Analysis. The need for such a procedure emerges when literature in a particular area is characterized by an internal diversity of approaches and disagreements over the definitions of its fundamental concepts. This is the case of social network studies where such a diversity stimulates a question about the existence of a substantial network theory. The book represents an attempt to answer to such a question. After having investigated the lines of development of social network analysis and provided a sociological explanation of strategic and organizational phenomena in network terms, the work presents a systematic classification of the network effects as recognized by literature and a typology of network studies which identifies 5 different clusters. The results of the study seem to confirm the existence of a substantial, general concept beyond social network studies, the one of social capital.

O autorze

Angela Delli Paoli, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Sociology. She developed expertise both in Social Research Methods and Business Management through teaching experience, research on field and advanced training. She teaches Research Methods (doctoral programme) and Micro-Macro Relationships (master degree programme).