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Approaches for Measuring Social Capital

Approaches for Measuring Social Capital

Ben Kei Daniel
Copyright: © 2009 |Pages: 17
ISBN13: 9781605666631|ISBN10: 1605666637|ISBN13 Softcover: 9781616924799|EISBN13: 9781605666648
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-663-1.ch004
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MLA

Ben Daniel. "Approaches for Measuring Social Capital." Social Capital Modeling in Virtual Communities: Bayesian Belief Network Approaches, IGI Global, 2009, pp.58-74. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-663-1.ch004

APA

B. Daniel (2009). Approaches for Measuring Social Capital. IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-663-1.ch004

Chicago

Ben Daniel. "Approaches for Measuring Social Capital." In Social Capital Modeling in Virtual Communities: Bayesian Belief Network Approaches. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2009. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-663-1.ch004

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Abstract

While it is possible to measure how much an economic capital is worth, at least in terms of monetary value, through the use of sophisticated econometric tools, while conditioning other factors, in comparison, measuring social capital is significantly more challenging and complex business. The complexity in measuring social capital relates to the fact it is an intangible concept, multidimensional and multivariate in nature. Further as discussed earlier, social capital lacks a unified definition and dimension. To make matters more problematic, social capital is not a static construct that can be easily captured and conditioned during measurement, but rather it is a moving target, difficult to capture, without resorting to some assumptions and conditioning during measurement. An exploration of the various ways in which researchers have measured social capital is critical to our understanding of the range of approaches and techniques available, to guide us when thinking about measuring social capital. This will also enable us to make informed decisions on the most relevant and appropriate approaches and level of measurement as per a variable or component of social capital. This Chapter presents some of the major approaches currently employed to measure social capital and the approaches used to achieve this endeavour. The Chapter describes with illustration, the dimensions taken by each approach.

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