E-Payment Development Towards Social Capital Using Blockchain Technology

Social Capital

According to Bourdieu (1986), the social capital is not uniformly available to members of a group or collective but available to those who provide efforts to acquire it by achieving positions of power and status and by developing goodwill. For Bourdieu social capital is irreducibly attached to class and other forms of layer which in turn are associated with various forms of benefit or advancement. Bourdieu framed social capital as accrued actual or virtual resources acquired by individuals or groups through the possession of “more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition” (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992: 119). Therefore, social capital resides in the individual and is linked to social connections that a person can utilise for advancement. Bourdieu’s theory of social capital is substantiated by a rich set of sociological theories that embrace the complexity of the social environment rather than seeking simplification and reductionism. His approached has influenced a range of research on the links between micro-level networks and positive individual outcomes, particularly in the context of professional advancement and labour market status (Bourdieu, 1984).

Social capital does not have a clear, undisputed meaning, for substantive and ideological reasons (Dolfsma and Dannreuther 2003); Foley and Edwards 1997). For this reason there is no set and commonly agreed upon definition of social capital and the particular definition adopted by a study will depend on the discipline and level of investigation (Robison et al. 2002). Thus, there are a numerous definition of social capital found in the literature. A considerable number of definitions have been listed in the table below (adapted from Adler and Kwon 2002).