6-week course with three self-paced lessons and an optional Zoom tutorial each two-week block.

Social capital has become one of the most popular concepts across the social sciences. It is being heard with increasing regularity outside of academia, in business, politics, healthcare, and even in popular language. However, social capital is a difficult, complicated, and confusing concept, with many different meanings and approaches that can seem to contradict and confound. This course provides a foundational understanding of the concept with practical tools to help organise and understand the different conceptual approaches.

This course is designed to give you a rapid introduction to the concept of social capital and its use in research, helping you avoid weeks or even months of reading. The social capital literature can be incredibly confusing, with many different and often contradictory approaches. This course has been designed to be your roadmap, to help you quickly navigate the different meanings and conceptual approaches, helping to direct you to the best approach for your research or interest, and giving you reference lists and readings to get you started. There are no “silver bullets” and no quick simple solutions that are appropriate for every discipline and every application. But, this course guides and directs you. Ultimately, the goal of this course is to help you to understand the concept better, apply it more effectively, and save you time in doing so.

Block 1: starting Monday, October 31, 2022

• Self-paced lectures and readings on:
  • Introduction to social capital
  • History and evolution of social capital
  • Understanding social capital
• Zoom tutorial for discussion and support on Monday, November 14, 2022

Block 2: starting Monday, November 14, 2022

• Self-paced lectures and readings on:
  • Dimensions of social capital
  • Social capital levels
  • Bonding and bridging social capital
• Zoom tutorial for discussion and support on Monday, November 28, 2022

Block 3: starting Monday, November 28, 2022

• Self-paced lectures and readings on:
  • Sources of social capital
  • Criticisms of social capital
  • Measurement of social capital
• Zoom tutorial for discussion and support on Monday, December 12, 2022

The tutorials will be held on Monday every second week to review the material in the course block. The tutorials will include revision of the course content for the block, discussion of key points, and will be an opportunity for participants to ask questions. These tutorials will be facilitated by Tristan Claridge, who has over 20 years of social capital experience and is an expert teacher and facilitator.