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It is currently acknowledged that, apart from theoretical knowledge and professional competencies, the right attitude and engagement of librarians are important in order for libraries, in their role of local community keystones, to engage in various services beyond the traditional provision of information, such as social animation and engagement or civic education. The paper presents the results of research on the civic activity (civic attitude) of librarians versus their social engagement (social attitude) and level of individual social capital. Surveys conducted in 20 countries of the world confirm that civic activity is linked to the social activity of librarians and a high level of their individual social capital. This means that libraries may actively participate in promoting the civil society and engage in the social integration of local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a unique longitudinal qualitative perspective on a group of women maintaining desisting pathways in two different European countries: Sweden and England. Applying a social and emotional capital framework, with particular attention given to the friend and family connection, the paper aims to unveil how a resource perspective can enable a more nuanced view of the role of overlapping female identities and network management, the paradoxes of trust within these, and experiences of stigmatisation and emotional expenditure in female desistance narratives across time and space. The cross-national perspective brings to light the importance of situating the desistance process in the particular context in which it plays out, making visible how narratives may be structurally mediated by wider social, cultural, penal – and gendered – conditions and processes. These insights may, in turn, contribute to the identification of desistance support that have the potential to make female desistance paths less socially and emotionally costly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the need for a more comprehensive understanding of Latinx youths' interpersonal relationships and socioemotional well-being, highlighting the importance of moving away from deficit perspectives towards asset-based approaches. Topics include challenges in representation within the literature, the significance of family and peer relationships in Latinx communities, and the necessity for inclusive studies that examine diverse facets of Latinx populations.

This paper explains the origins, features and impacts of 'knowledge activism' as an emergent form of collective OHS resistance. Coupling labour process theory with Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of capital, the analysis connects transformations in production, management, technology, and neoliberal governance to shifts in labour/management power relations, both within the joint committee and the workplace more generally, as defined by the relative social, cultural and symbolic capital accumulated and mobilized by worker representatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the past several years, a considerable body of research on adherence to diabetes regimen has emerged in public health. However, the focus of the vast majority of these studies has been on the individual traits and attitudes affecting adherence. Still little is known on the role of the social and physical context in supporting or hindering diabetes self-management, particularly from a qualitative standpoint. To address these limitations, this paper presents the findings of a Photovoice study on a sample of 10 type 2 diabetic older adults living in a deprived neighbourhood of an Italian city. The findings reveal that the possibility to engage in diet, exercise and blood sugar monitoring seems to be more affected by physical and social elements of the respondents' environment than by the interviewees' beliefs and attitudes. Both environmental barriers and social isolation emerge as barriers to lifestyle changes and self-care activities related to blood sugar monitoring. The predominance of bonding social capital, the scant level of trust and the negative perception of local health services result in a low level of social cohesion, a limited circulation of health information on diabetes management and, consequently, in poor health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Effective digital social capital interventions have great potential to establish trusted social pathways to access supportive services and to enable talking about issues contributing to distress. Aim: This review explores the digital social capital interventions used in individuals with social skills deficits, and the best social health outcomes achieved. Method: Four databases (PubMed, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and Web of Science) were used with no time limitation, and 33 papers were included. Results: A diverse range of digital social programs was used for social capital improvement based on individuals' characteristics (e.g. age range and illnesses). Programs ranged from digitally-enhanced self-help or self-guided treatment (to enhance the self-efficacy of individuals), to group treatments and/or web-based caregiver support services. They comprised mobile social apps, video blogging, video-communication system/video-conferencing, and online social communication, to more advanced techniques such as virtual reality. All of these modalities were shown to be beneficial for improving the social health of individuals. Interventions targeted two aspects of social capital: (1) cognitive social capital, focusing on enhancing trust and control, self-efficacy on life. Some examples were cognitive behavioural therapy, and increasing the received and more importantly perceived social support. (2) structural social capital, focusing on individuals' relationships with family/carers, friends, peers to other connections at the macro level, such as health care providers and their community as a whole. The two interconnected aspects of social capital play a role in decreasing fears of being judged by others, general fears in social interactions and interpersonal problems. Conclusion: Guided digital social support interventions result in open and flexible access to various resources through supportive social networks, for patients and their family members/carers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Africa, rural communities thrive on social capital and tend to have a number of commonalities that force them to share natural, physical and social resources. It has been a trend in sub-Saharan Africa to have either formal or informal collaborative management agreements to manage common pool resources (CPRs) to accommodate different actors and interests. This paper draws lessons from past and contemporary collaborative schemes in Cameroon and South Africa to enhance the practice and governance processes of natural resources in sub-Saharan Africa in order to promote sustainable development. Using research methods inspired by the tradition of participatory research to collect field-based data and complemented by reflections on previous and existing studies, the paper highlights the importance and benefits of participatory democracy as opposed to representational democracy in co-management of natural resources in rural spaces. It further discusses the need to redefine the roles of national and local governments, the youths and women in ensuring effective participation and the essence of unifying the judicial and culture. To guarantee sustainability of collaborative community-based natural resources, the paper emphasises the role and importance of youth and women empowerment. These issues have been discussed within the broader sustainability discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the role of intergenerational processes in increasing or reducing multidimensional inequality in Indio Guayas, a low-income peripheral settlement in Guayaquil, Ecuador. It also examines the importance of family social capital, irrespective of spatial location, as against household social capital in these processes. This longitudinal case study included a dataset on trends from 1978 through 1992 to 2004, in-depth studies over the decades, and further comparative research in 2018. The anthropological narrative is provided by the voices of three women and their families over 40 years. In 2018, interviews my son and I undertook for the documentary film Calle K demonstrated the importance of family social capital in the intergenerational reciprocity among mothers, daughters, fathers and sons, while illustrating different intergenerational trajectories addressing the challenges of inequality at this micro-level. The postscript points to the likely critical importance of family social capital in the context of the appalling COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the link between associational involvement and political participation among youth in Norway and how this link varies between boys and girls of an immigrant or non-immigrant background. We examine the relationship between activities in instrumental and expressive types of voluntary organizations. The paper draws on the survey Ung i Oslo 2015 (Young in Oslo 2015), which was carried out among students in almost all high schools (30 schools) in Oslo, Norway. The results indicate that those who are actively involved in socially oriented organizations are most likely to participate in politics. However, the relationship between organizational activity and political participation is often stronger among youth of immigrant background and is visible even among those who are active in less socially oriented organizations. Most notably, the results suggest that being active in a sports organization is positively related to political participation among immigrant youth. We found no such effect among non-immigrant youth. In accordance with Robert Putnam's theoretical framework on social capital, the paper discusses why youth of immigrant background seem to benefit more, politically speaking, from associational involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper offers insights into production of vernacular architectural heritage that result from disruption caused by disaster such as a flood in a city. To understand the complexities surrounding vernacular heritage, this paper proposes a conceptual approach derived from Lefebvre’s theory of production of space constituting the triad of spatial practice, representation of spaces and representational space. The strength of this approach in explaining resilience and vernacular architectural heritage is illustrated by examining rehabilitation settlements that evolved after the devastating floods of 1961 in Pune (a city with a population of 4.5 million). The paper focuses on the rehabilitation process that was undertaken in response to the floods and relies on secondary data and primary field observations in the rehabilitated settlements. It was found that these settlements had twofold characteristics; externally, they directed the trajectory of growth and expansion of the city owing to their strategic location in the periphery around the old core, and internally within, they contributed to reshaping of urban form and vernacular architecture as the affected people reconstructed their houses and everyday lives. A significant contribution to the making of these rehabilitation spaces was the state’s provision of land for rehabilitation and encouragement to the mechanism of Cooperative Housing as a representation of space incorporating contemporary planning ideologies. These settlements comprised the ‘architecture of the dispossessed’ where material culture and imagery informed different and hybrid forms of houses but these were a departure from the past as they needed to accommodate rebuilding and expansion while serving aspirations of those affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how historically the accumulation of symbolic power by men produced a glass ceiling for women in the Catalan Pyrenees and how women have overcome this constraint by engaging in male-led networks, founding gender balanced networks and developing women-nurtured networks. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews and ethnographic research, the paper investigates the strategies women employed to maintain their involvement in networking activities over a 10-year period. The paper identifies the importance of being connected with horizontal organizations and the empowerment of sharing experiences provided by social bridge agents. The results of this research make a strong case for more inclusive and gender-aware policies in rural areas as a means to promote economic and social viability while empowering women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been recognised that changes in social networks (and the underpinning changes in personal and social identity) are strong predictors of both desistance from crime and recovery from substance use. Building on existing work attempting to measure and shift social networks and transitions to prosocial groups, the current study provides pilot data from prisoners and family members about a visualisation technique widely used in specialist addiction treatment (node-link mapping) to map opportunities for linkage to prosocial groups and networks. The data presented in the paper are from a small-scale feasibility pilot. This suggests both bonding and bridging capital in prisoner populations due for release and the diversity of community capital opportunities that exists in this population. The implications of this work are significant for substance users and offenders pending return to the community, and has implications around resettlement and reintegration support for probation staff in prisons and in the community. The paper emphasises the importance of mapping connectedness as a key component of planning for reintegration back into the community for those working with offenders who are aspiring to achieve desistance and recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the funding and financial services provided by the Akiba Mashinani Trust (AMT) to support the Kenyan Homeless People’s Federation (Muungano wa Wanavijiji). Muungano is a federation of autonomous savings groups with over 60,000 members from informal settlements across Kenya. Savings are critical because they enable wealth accumulation, demonstrate the capacity of the community to repay loans and hence leverage additional resources, and build social capital among members. AMT is able to use these savings as seed capital for revolving funds at the community, city and national scales. The funds offer informal settlers a range of financial products, including community project loans, which allow savings groups to finance social housing, sanitation and basic infrastructure in an affordable way. Therefore, unlike formal banking and microfinance institutions, AMT positions its financial services within a broader effort to improve the physical and social fabric of urban informal settlements. The experiences of Muungano and AMT demonstrate the catalytic impact of establishing appropriate financial services geared towards low-income groups – and crucially, how the savings of low-income people can leverage government resources to achieve more inclusive cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environment & Urbanization is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the variant roles that specific forms of networked-based social capital play in supporting the democratic functions of a neighbourhood governance network in Los Angeles. A significant body of empirical work has demonstrated the positive role that social capital plays in the functioning of civil society, but there has been less attention to the manner in which different types of network-based social capital promote support efficacy of multifaceted civic organisations. This paper utilises network measures from a survey of the members of a neighbourhood governance network in Los Angeles to explore the associations between types of network ties -- within group; among groups; to different external stakeholders -- and perceived self-efficacy of the member associations. We find that internal cohesion, or bonding social capital, promotes both advisement of city officials and promotion of local participation, suggesting that this network-based resource is fungible. Other network structures appear to have value in different contexts, in that stakeholder connections promote participation, while bridging social capital is associated with perceived success in advising city officials. The findings suggest that architects of participatory reform should be attentive to system goals in establishing supports for varying forms of system relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an investigation of homebuyers and the influence of local social capital (LSC) on their housing decisions. We adopt a housing search model and predict the following two effects of LSC: a homebuyer with more social capital in a given location will have a higher propensity to relocate in that location and will be able to secure a housing transaction at a more favourable price in that location. Using data from the owner-occupied housing market in Tianjin, China, we find that LSC tends to inhibit homebuyers from moving far from their original neighbourhoods. LSC also helps homebuyers purchase their housing units at an average price that is 7% lower than the prices paid by those with less LSC when relocating within their original neighbourhoods and 3% lower if they relocate outside of their original neighbourhoods but within the same general location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to map the extent to which civil society actors champion environmental justice in an industrial risk society. It examines the role of civil society actors in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, in being able to perceive industrial risk and push local concerns in development processes. The paper draws on qualitative and empirical research for a local case study in Merebank, South Durban, to explore how civil society engaged to organize and respond to local groundwater contamination caused by the German multinational Bayer, and also influence construction of knowledge around risk. It examines civil society networking to organize collectively and subsequent responses to government and industry during the risk assessment and remediation process. The final section engages in a discussion of findings and draws some conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rural households continuously move into and out of poverty due to various factors; and in response to this phenomenon, these rural households adopt several strategies. The purpose of the present paper was to examine the role of livelihood diversification and social capital in the movement of these households into and out of poverty in Eastern rural India. The present study classified households into four poverty groups (called poverty dynamics) based on the panel data gathered from 1353 rural households between 2004–2005 and 2011–2012. The study used the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) and the multinomial logit model (MLM) to examine the poverty outcome between 2004–2005 and 2011–2012. As per the data collected, at the state level, 25.26% of households were chronic poor and 37.04% of households ascended out of poverty, while 8.20% of households descended into poverty between 2004–2005 and 2011–2012. Further, it was found out from the SLA that there is a positive relationship between the phenomena of non-farm activities and escaping poverty. The result from the MLM shows that social capital in the form of group membership in different saving schemes and social groups helps to ascend out of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on Pierre Bourdieu's critical sociology to explore the socio-political processes through which social resources or capital are sought and ethnic inequalities negotiated, legitimated and enforced in a postcolonial work context. Applying Bourdieusian analysis to data from interviews and vignettes in the Nigerian banking sector, the constructs 'ethnicised identity' and 'symbolic identity' are developed to show how employees across ethnic divides and work hierarchies use symbolic ethnic markers to negotiate benefits and enforce control as a status-independent capital. Realising diversity management goals in multiethnic workplaces may, therefore, require refocusing initiatives from racial to ethnic inequalities and, consequently, from inter-group inequalities (ethnic membership) to intra-group discriminations (ethnic affiliation). This research suggests that a more nuanced, contextually sensitive perspective is necessary to address workplace inequalities linked to ethnic diversity in organisations with indigenous multiethnicities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Since South Sudan's independence, complex conflicts across the country have eroded trust, challenged nation-building, and displaced 4 million people, with hunger threatening millions more, continuing a long tradition of war inherited from the Sudan. This article examines people's perceptions of conflict in Aweil and Yambio and found that for trust in the government to return, citizens must believe that development is ethnically and politically inclusive and coherent. In addition to a credible program, government's effective communication of a "peace through development policy" could rebuild the torn social fabric within and across ethnic groups, and between them and Government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The purpose of this study was to examine cardiovascular disease-related health beliefs and how they are influenced by knowledge and a sense of community among uninsured primary care patients. Method This study was a cross-sectional study using a self-administered paper survey (January to April 2016). The study population included medically uninsured US-born English speakers, non-US-born English speakers, and Spanish speakers. Results Medically uninsured adults utilizing a free clinic (N = 374) participated in the survey. Increasing knowledge about major risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease helped enhance levels of perceived severity of cardiovascular disease and benefits of healthy diet and physical activity. Spanish speakers reported higher levels of perceived severity of cardiovascular disease but lower levels of knowledge compared to US-born or non-US-born English speakers. Conclusion Spanish speakers may need different approaches to promote cardiovascular disease prevention due to their higher levels of perceived severity of cardiovascular disease but lower levels of cardiovascular disease-related knowledge compared to English speakers. Developing a healthy "community" in a clinic setting may be effective to promote cardiovascular disease-related health for underserved populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientists have long engaged in collaborations with field collectors, but how are such collaborations established and maintained? This article examines structures of collaborative data collection between professional scientists and various field recorders around the Cornell Library of Natural Sounds. The Library collects animal sound recordings for use in education, preservation, and entertainment, but primarily in the scientific field of bio-acoustics. Since 1945, the Library has enlisted academic researchers, commercial recorders and broadcasters (such as the British Broadcasting Corporation), and amateur sound hunters in its expansion. I argue that the Cornell Library of Natural Sounds managed to craft and sustain a crucial network of contributors through creative and strategic brokering with its collection of recordings/data. Drawing on notions from exchange theory, I show that sound recordings were valued not just as scientific data, but also as copyrighted commodities that could be bought, sold, traded, and converted in a range of economic, social, and symbolic capitals within collaborators’ respective social fields. Thus, aligning collaborators’ interests, these exchange relations enabled the Cornell Library of Natural Sounds to negotiate amateur recorders’ reliability, willingness to share work, and commitment to scientific standards, as well as the bonds that solidified their collaboration with the Cornell Library of Natural Sounds. Attending to the micro-economics of data exchange, this article thus brings into perspective the multi-dimensional processes through which data-flows are managed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberal accounts of local governance have paid insufficient attention to variation in the forms of urban governance and urban policies across local regimes. On the basis of a comparison of eight deprived neighbourhoods in Catalonia (Spain) where the same regional programme of urban regeneration has been carried out, this paper explores the significance of place when it comes to understanding the adoption of different models of urban governance. In Spain, the combination of a high autonomy of local government and a very strong tradition of neighbourhood associations has resulted in both local authorities and community organisations playing a very important role in local policy-making. Local structural and agency factors are both essential to understanding why models of urban governance and regeneration change from place to place. The paper concludes that neighbourhood type, size of municipality, social capital and previous conflicts are crucial for the understanding of urban governance geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on the qualitative findings of a three-year study of public libraries and social capital conducted in Ontario, Canada. The study sought to establish whether library use was related to levels of social capital. This paper focuses on the rural phase of the study. The researchers visited five rural libraries, all in the southwestern region of the province. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with library staff members and regular library users. The data suggest that while rural libraries have high potential to create social capital, the overlap of social networks in rural communities renders the library’s influence redundant. Moreover, many of the mechanisms that help libraries increase a sense of social cohesion and inclusion among users can also result in exclusion, even if unintentionally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Regional development policies to foster innovation and competitiveness have evolved towards a ‘soft’ focus on facilitating relationships of cooperation. This is demonstrated by the popularity of network and cluster policies. However, the development of these policies poses particular challenges since there is insufficient understanding of the factors in the social structure that underpin networking behaviour and network outcomes. The analysis of this social context provides an important base for policy learning and therefore for the development of networking policies. The paper makes both a theoretical contribution (in establishing the framework) and a methodological contribution (in exploring its implementation in an ongoing policy process). The case studied is that of the Basque aeronautics cluster, a medium-sized cluster with 35 members founded in 1997 within the Basque Country (Spain) cluster policy, one of the longest-running cluster policies in Europe. The participatory design carried out in the application of the theoretical framework to the case study enabled a deeper appreciation of the different realities and behaviour of targeted firms and supported strategies to improve policy effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobility is often overlooked in debates about spatial disadvantage, which tend to focus on place. In this paper, the focus is on residential mobility and the ways in which it derives from, and contributes to, processes of social disadvantage. Building on David Clapham’s concept of ‘housing pathways’, mobility-based disadvantage is analysed with a focus on questions of housing quality, control over residential moves and accumulation of economic, social and cultural capital through such moves. These themes are considered in an empirical study of the housing pathways of sixty low-income households in Australia, through which four typical patterns are identified as ‘mobilities of disadvantage’: hectic private rental pathways; pathways of homelessness; pathways out of homeownership; and, repeat moves in and out of social housing. These pathways represent one neglected aspect of the ‘unfair structure’ of the Australian city, as a network of pathways rather than a mosaic of places. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Housing renovation is a topical issue in CEE countries facing the need to tackle their troubled post-war housing estates and improve their energy efficiency. In this paper the renovation decisions of households living in multidwelling buildings are modelled to identify the key determinants of such decisions and to gain a better insight into the reasons for the insufficient extent of renovation in CEE. Considering general factors as well as CEE specific factors, and specifically adding variables of social capital, renovation decision-making is modelled by applying a discrete choice framework of analysis. The results clearly show that, next to the physical characteristics of the stock, such as its age, an important role in the renovation process is played by residents and particularly their relations in terms of social capital. The results thus identify some of the key missing pre-conditions for renovating multidwelling buildings across CEE. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates the interaction between digital capital and some offline components (economic, cultural, political, social and personal) that represent the background against which we access and use the Internet. Based on a stratified sample of the UK population (868), six indexes (one for each component) were generated through factor analysis and univariate analysis. We summarised them into a unique model by performing a multiple linear regression to evaluate the role-played by offline components in the development/reinforcement of digital capital. The interaction between these new indexes and the digital capital index shows that, with the exception of the political component, all offline backgrounds positively contribute to digital capital. Moreover, the multiple regression analysis shows that the economic and social components have the strongest influence on digital capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The behaviour of football fans in Ukraine has often taken the form of public order offences. However, since Maidan, fans have enjoyed a more positive image, linked to their recognition by and assimilation into Ukrainian society through their social and political activities. Eventually becoming one of the driving forces of revolutionary events and contributing to regime change, football fans have taken an active part in hostilities in the east of the country since 2014. This article explores the links between football fans, their collective violent practices and their social transformation before Maidan, at the time of Maidan and in the post-Maidan period. The author presents the idea of the connection between the conversion of various types of capital and the application of different kinds of collective violent practices, which can affect the status of the group within society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research by the authors has shown that increasing trip making and improving a person’s social capital and sense of community is likely to reduce risks of social exclusion. That research has enabled values to be assigned to additional trip making, in the context of reducing risk of social exclusion. This paper extends that analysis to impute values to increasing a person’s sense of community and social capital. The social capital extension requires strong assumptions for the derivation of values, given the available data, but the valuation of sense of community is likely to be an important new support for policy measures intended to achieve this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper derives literature-based components of social capital. Since social capital changes form given the context, the paper uses the theoretical concepts of social capital to observe how they play out in rural tribal India. A qualitative data-coding software is used to sieve through the literature as well as to analyze the empirical data from Jhabua. The coding procedure combines theoretical codes based on previous literature and emergent codes derived from interview data. The paper suggests that not all forms of social capital are positive. However, each component must be clearly understood to promote community-driven actions towards development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper considers the role of the public library in ameliorating relations between communities, and the appropriateness of a multicultural or assimilationist approach via which to deliver socially inclusive services. Qualitative findings from two inductive studies, each of which focused on different aspects of the capacity of public library staff to deliver culturally inclusive services, are analysed in relation to concepts such as social capital, cultural and ethnic diversity, institutional racism and cultural awareness. The paper focuses on staffing issues and on the provision of the ‘multicultural text’. It is concluded that recruitment strategies are slow to address the homogeneity of the current library workforce, and that a revised approach to recruitment and subsequent training should be made. Furthermore, it is suggested that a community-wide exposure to materials about other ethnic cultures can contribute to the reduction of existing social fragmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores attempts to enhance social capital, reduce negative area effects and improve life chances in deprived neighbourhoods by promoting social diversity. The paper draws on the results of two recent studies. The first study examined resident perceptions of new, high-density, mixed-tenure housing that was designed to provide socially diverse and cohesive communities. The second study examined the housing allocations policies of UK social landlords, focusing on their attempts to balance their role in housing high-need homeless households with their role in the sustainment of neighbourhood social diversity. After reviewing the results of each study, the paper concludes that the management of perceived, and actual, risks to social cohesion from some poorer households is a central concern in the promotion of socially diverse neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Russian and Ukrainian households have experienced periods of economic marginalization. The role of this paper is to examine these social costs of transition, noting that official reporting underestimates the true scale of the problem, and the household responses to these costs. The discussions are based on both qualitative and quantitative research undertaken in numerous locations in Russia and Ukraine. One of the paper's key arguments is that informal economic practices are crucial to many households and that a broad spectrum of coping tactics is employed. These tactics often reveal the unequal power relations that run through state-society and worker- employee relations and help detail the high levels of corruption that exist in post-Soviet societies. Furthermore, these tactics are entwined in the locations within which they take place and rely on high levels of social capital, ensuring that households would rather remain in their current location than migrate to cheaper regions. The paper concludes on a rather pessimistic note, arguing that, although Russian and Ukrainian households have 'coped' over the 20 years since the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the future poses new challenges. These include an ageing population, the increasing use of credit (default on which can lead to eviction) and the global recession, which leads to a decrease in opportunities in the informal sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Social Work is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents several abstracts of papers published in the 2004 issue of the Journal "Sociologia del Lavoro." The paper "From Production to Consumption," by Giampaolo Fabris, focuses on a new era arising: that of postmodernism. This new era is completely different and able to change deeply the present knowledge and culture. The paper "Production and Consumption: Outlines for a Research Project," by Vanni Codeluppi, aims to analyze both production and consumption as two aspects of the same economic process. Through an historical analysis of production and consumption processes, it is possible to see the transformation of work as a social and relational category, nowadays the new social identity is also defined by the time spent far from productive activity and by what is called social capital. The paper "Towards the Fictional Economy," by Fulvio Carmagnola, focuses on a new form of modernity, one in which the two terms of culture and economy are deeply entangled. That means that culture and information are a structural paradigm.

The term Culture of Care, within the scientific community using laboratory animals, is being used more and more frequently after it was introduced in the EU Directive 2010/63/EU, where it is phrased as a 'climate of care', which became effective in national legislation from January 2013. However, there is a risk that the term could become a meaningless phrase if no agreed local definition of the term exists at the animal facility (called establishment in the EU Directive). This paper presents a comprehensive survey tool that provides a means to describe what the Culture of Care in an establishment looks like. The tool is one of the elements that can contribute to the overall picture of the culture; however, it cannot stand alone. Together with an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Culture of Care (e.g. key performance indicators) and a description of the outcomes and achievements in terms of animal welfare and the 3Rs (Replace, Reduce, Refine), the survey tool will constitute a comprehensive picture. The survey tool offers a multilevel and comprehensive view of different subcultures, presenting details on mindset and behaviour of the employees and the different relations within the culture, thus enabling the initiation of improvement projects if required. The tool addresses essential elements of a co-operative culture in terms of what we think, what we do and how we work together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-assesses the relevant literature on social capital formation and its development role in marginal communities, using the case example of the Crimean Tatars. In order to review the current literature, a modified systematic review procedure has been adopted, leading to the formulation of a more thoroughly grounded conceptual framework. The concept of social capital was originally developed as a tool for explaining different developmental outcomes in societies with otherwise similar resources. By integrating various theoretical strands, a complex understanding of the various forms and levels of social capital emerges. The value of the concept of social capital is examined, and attention is paid to both its positive and negative meanings. Of particular interest for development studies is the analysis of the impact of external intervention on social capital formation. This is then tested in terms of its relevance for marginal communities, and specifically when thinking through alternative policy effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital is a topical concept in economic development. The claim is that regional differences in economic success can be explained in terms of differences in various social variables, called social capital. This paper attempts to delineate the mechanisms that link social capital and economic development. I show that social capital can produce two kinds of trust, both of which can reduce transaction costs. It is important to keep these two sources of trust apart, since development policies utilizing social capital have different impacts, depending on the basis of trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural cooperatives are assumed to contribute to economic development, regeneration, service delivery and local democracy. This paper examines the problems of setting up early-stage rural cooperatives, the difficulties experienced by them, and antecedents of their failure by complementing extant research with an empirical study of existing and recently failed early-stage Welsh cooperatives. Factors inhibiting early-stage rural cooperative growth and survival encompass various aspects of negative and antithetical social capital, exacerbated by management and marketing weaknesses, as well as regional and national institutional conditions. Such factors are relevant to theory development, cooperative management practice and public sector policy, and are theorised from rural cooperation, social capital and rural development perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reconsiders James S. Coleman's concept of social capital. The concept has gained wide use and acceptance in sociology since its first publication, but, Coleman's own writings on the subject remain to date its most extensive analytic treatment. We make two contributions to social capital theory. First, we recast social capital theory to focus on benefits rather than forms. We identify three benefits that forms of social capital may confer: information, influence mid control, and social solidarity. In the context of a focus on benefits, we consider how a specific form of social capital may vary in the degree to which its benefits generalize to different kinds of goals, and how forms that are valuable for some purposes may be a liability for other purposes. Second, we emphasize social capital's origin in aspects of social structure that actors may appropriate to use in their interests. We suggest how changes in the social structure of which social capital is an aspect may affect tile emergence and persistence of forms of social capital and may condition the value of given forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human resources and intellectual capital are best utilised through an ongoing interaction between individual and social processes. Still there is a research gap of empirical multilevel studies, focusing both on individual and organisational aspects of knowledge processes. To fill this gap, this article reports on a quantitative study, where the relationship between information literacy and social capital, representing the individual and social contexts affecting organisational knowledge processes, is explored. Structural equation modelling-based analysis of 378 employees working in different companies in Finland demonstrated that information literacy supports all three dimensions of social capital at workplace. Strong information handling skills enable better access to knowledge beyond the resources of an individual, that is, social capital. The results of the study contribute to a better understanding of how to manage human resources and the information and knowledge processes that employees are expected to be involved in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes how the inhabitants of Llico, a small fishing town in Chile, organized to move from the coastline to avoid a tsunami that devastated their homes and livelihoods and then to manage immediate responses. It then describes how long it took for state support to arrive and how the inhabitants were marginalized from planning and implementing the reconstruction processes. As a result, this poorly served their needs and priorities and failed to utilize their knowledge and organizational capacities. Here and elsewhere in Chile, post-catastrophe reconstruction processes miss the opportunity to improve living conditions for the affected communities and to develop policies for disaster management that incorporate and use their social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on a survey of migrants in 12 cities across four major urbanising areas in China, this paper analyses rural migrants’ intention for permanent urban settlement. We focus on one sizeable but often overlooked group of rural migrants, that is, the self-employed. Our hypothesis is that the self-employed migrants tend to have stronger intention for permanent urban settlement since they are usually more ingrained in urban economy and society. The empirical evidence supports our hypothesis. Moreover, the social and economic choices made by the self-employed migrants are consistent with their expressed intentions: they are more likely to migrate with spouses and to live with their family members, more likely to have a plan for house purchase in cities; they are also more integrated into urban society in terms of learning local dialects and making friends with local permanent residents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the way community groups, central to new systems of local governance, are related to local institutions and how those relations influence them. We draw from two theoretical approaches – behavioural and institutional – that offer different answers to the question: what makes community groups thrive? Based on an analysis of 386 community groups in the Netherlands, we distinguish four types of groups: feather light, cooperative, networked and nested groups. Then, in a neighbourhood case study we focus on the relations between groups and local institutions to gain a deeper insight into the institutional dynamics of urban governance. Moreover, we combine the findings of both studies claiming that different groups need different things from local institutions, and that in the current NPM-driven world only the higher educated community groups have productive relationships with local institutions, while others are somewhere in between frail contacts and failing demands. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper looks at the geographical dimension of firm networking in Norway, by examining the impact of manager-level, firm-level and regional-level variables on the decisions of firms to collaborate with partners at different levels of geographical distance. Using data stemming from a survey of 1604 businesses in five Norwegian city-regions, we model firms’ use of partners located within the region, elsewhere in the country and abroad, respectively. The results indicate that collaboration is affected in different ways by variables related to all three levels. At the level of the manager, trust is an important predictor of regional and national collaboration, but has no significant effect on the formation of international partnerships, which are fundamentally associated with factors such as education and the open-mindedness of managers. At the regional level, R&D expenditure tends to increase collaboration between regional actors, but reduces the likelihood of engagement with international partners. Education, by contrast, has the opposite effect: it encourages international collaboration at the expense of local links. The results highlight the need to balance policies for boosting regional social capital and R&D with investments in education and fostering open-mindedness as a means to prevent lock-in and develop innovation-enhancing global pipelines. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on a study that investigated the relationship between social capital and public library use in small towns in Ontario, Canada. Comparisons were also made with the findings of a similar study that was conducted in a medium-sized urban centre. Data for this study were collected through questionnaires administered to both library users and non-users and interviews with library staff and frequent library users. Both Robert Putnam’s and Nan Lin’s conceptualizations of social capital informed the design of this study. The study found that participants from small towns had higher levels of social capital than the urban participants. However, in contrast with urban participants, library use had no significant association with levels of social capital for small town participants. The findings suggest that small town libraries cater mainly to middle-class residents who maintain their high level of social capital through participation in a variety of community activities and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]