Objectives. This article examines the extent to which nonprofit organizational foundings are determined by various forms of social capital. Our hypothesis is that, controlling for other relevant social, political, and economic factors, communities with higher levels of social capital should experience more extensive growth in their nonprofit sectors. Methods. Using data derived from the Social ...

This article examines the relationship between social capital and the creation and exchange of knowledge for grassroots development. It applies a framework that originated in developed countries to the initial, experimental phase of a successful entrepreneurial development programme undertaken between 2006 and 2012 in rural Bangladesh. Although the framework was generally applicable, its struct...

According to Robert Putnam (2007) ethnic diversity in cities and neighborhoods does not lead to an increase of trust and social capital as previously predicted by intergroup contact theory (Pettigrew, 1998); instead it triggers a reaction of hunkering down that leads to a decrease in trust and social capital of both in-group and out-groups. But what happens if we focus on youngsters that are gr...

This article examines the form and function of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) in terms of social engagement. Combining conclusions from media effects research informed by the communication effects literature with those from ethnographic research informed by a sociocultural perspective on cognition and learning, we present a shared theoretical framework for understanding (a) the exten...

This article deals with ICT availability among ethnic minority groups in the Netherlands and Flanders.The rapid spread of ICT applications has affected various aspects of digital citizenship.The study results suggest that the world of ethnic minority youths in the Netherlands and Flanders, as with other western countries, is being digitized gradually.This is an irreversible evolution with tangi...

Drawing on social capital theory, this study examined whether college students’ self-disclosure on a social networking site was directly associated with social capital, or related indirectly through the degree of positive feedback students got from Internet friends. Structural equation models applied to anonymous, self-report survey data from 264 first-year students at 3 universities in Beijing...

Microblog is a platform for publishing and sharing short (140 characters or less) messages with others within a user’s social network – is an Internet medium that is growing exponentially and changing the way people communicate on the Internet. To explore the effect of microblogging on interpersonal relationships, this study examines the relationships between narcissism, social anxiety, and mic...

New learning spaces and learning formats affected the learning and education of adults. In this respect, digitalisation is believed to reduce social exclusion. Moreover, adult education, social inclusion and social capital are positively related among adults. Therefore, this questionnaire study examines how adults who are engaged in online and blended learning perceived change in social inclusi...

This study proposes a structural approach to examining online bridging and bonding social capital in a large virtual world. It tests the effects of individual players’ network brokerage and closure on their task performance and trust of other players. Bridging social capital is operationalized as brokerage, the extent to which one is tied to disconnected others, and bonding social capital as cl...

The debate about social environment, sustainability and health has been highlighted by the interest in social capital. It has been suggested that social capital varies from place to place and that such variations are relevant for explaining variations in health. This paper explores the association between neighbourhood social capital (making a distinction between linking, bonding and bridging s...