Social Capital - how does it work?

richard · Post by **richard** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 2:45 pm

A: I am wondering if anyone has been modeling "social capital"

By social capital I mean the links among people in a society which allows
them to better carry out economic, and other, activities than would
otherwise be the case.

There is a large literature on this topic which I have wandered into by
mistake! This is an interesting area in international development and
especially when we start thinking about community based projects (e.g.
natural resources). It also has broad application in other arenas.

B: I am wondering if this might be an appropriate topic for a session at
the ISDS meeting in Oxford, given the theme of collegiality?

I would be happy to provide my core reading list (much of it in e-format) to
interested individuals.

Perhaps it would be interesting to have several people come up with
independent models of social capital .... based on the same sources of
information?

Richard Dudley rgd6@cornell.edu rdudley@indo.net.id

Geoff McDonnell · Post by **Geoff McDonnell** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 3:53 am

I believe Jack Homer and Bobby Milstein have been using a public health form
of this concept in their Syndemics work with CDC Atlanta.
See http://www.cdc.gov/syndemics/

We (and many others esp Everett Rogers!) have also used social network
analysis in the role of communication in diffusion of innovation and an
example is at http://www.epsims.com/Innovation/Innovation.htm which we
presented as a poster at the Palermo ISDS meeting in 2002 with the Main
Author Mark Heffernan (HEFFE1.PDF and HEFFE1_S.ITM on the CD)

> B: I am wondering if this might be an appropriate topic for a session at
> the ISDS meeting in Oxford, given the theme of collegiality?

I think this is an excellent interdisciplinary topic

Regards
Geoff McDonnell
Director Adaptive Care Systems
Research Fellow Centre for Health Informatics UNSW
Co-chair Health Policy SIG
Sydney Australia
gmcdonne@bigpond.net.au

Anthony.Clark@brs.gov.au · Thu Oct 30, 2003 9:32 am

Hi Richard,

There is an application of agent based modelling in the rangelands
region of rural Australia. It doesnt model social capital specifically,
but is stochastic modelling of learning proceses which build social
capital (an agricultural application).

There is a more comprehensive paper (reference below) but I dont have an
electronic copy.

If you are intertested in agent based models and other approaches to
complex systems modelling it may be worthwhile contacting CSIROs complex
systems group. http://www.dar.csiro.au/css/. Dr John Finnagan is the
head of the group.

Im really interested in the area so let me know if you come across
anything interesting.

Hope this helps,

Cheers Anthony

Anthony Clark
From: Anthony.Clark@brs.gov.au
Climate Applications Science Program
Bureau of Rural Sciences
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
ph: 6271 6654

Janssen, M.A., Walker, B.H., Langridge, J. and Abel, N. 2000 An adaptive
agent model for analysiing co-evolution of management and policies in a
complex rangeland system, Ecological Modelling, 131: 249-268.

"Douglas Merchant" · Post by **"Douglas Merchant"** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 2:49 pm

"Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community" by Robert D.
Putnam may provide some useful trend data for those interested in modeling
Social Capital

doug merchant
From: "Douglas Merchant" <dougm@eclipse.net>

ali kerem saysel · Post by **ali kerem saysel** » Tue Nov 04, 2003 11:55 am

Hello Richard,
I, with Daniel Castillo did some work on modeling cooperative behavior of
local communities in a small island in Colombia. Simulation model represents
the behavior in "cooperation experiments" but not in actual social
circumstences. Though it doesnt directly touch the literature on "social
capital", I believe the issues that we deal with are highly related with
that concept.
Working paper is available at:
http://www.ifi.uib.no/sd/wp.html

...I believe, "social capital" would be a good session.

Best regards,
Ali Saysel
From: ali kerem saysel <ali@ifi.uib.no>

--
Ali K. Saysel, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, System Dynamics
Information Science, University of Bergen, 5020 Norway
tel: +47 55584118 fax: +47 55584107
http://www.ifi.uib.no/sd/
http://www.ifi.uib.no/personer/ansatte/ali.html
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