3-week course with three self-paced lessons and an optional Zoom tutorial each week.

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.

Week 1: starting Monday, May 8, 2023

• Self-paced lectures and readings on:
  • Introduction to social capital
  • History and evolution of social capital
  • Understanding social capital
• Optional Zoom tutorial for discussion and support on Friday, May 12, 2023 (two sessions to choose from: 9am or 9pm UTC)

Week 2: starting Monday, May 15, 2023

• Self-paced lectures and readings on:
  • Dimensions of social capital
  • Social capital levels
  • Bonding and bridging social capital
• Optional Zoom tutorial for discussion and support on Friday, May 19, 2023 (two sessions to choose from: 9am or 9pm UTC)

Week 3: starting Monday, May 22, 2023

• Self-paced lectures and readings on:
  • Sources of social capital
  • Criticisms of social capital
  • Measurement of social capital
• Optional Zoom tutorial for discussion and support on Friday, May 26, 2023 (two sessions to choose from: 9am or 9pm UTC)

The tutorials will be held on Friday of each week at two different times to ensure a session is accessible for everyone in the world, regardless of your time zone. The tutorials will include revision of the course content for the week, 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.

Members of the new International Social Capital Association (ISCA) get 50% off our courses for a limited time. Student membership in ISCA is only $20 (high-income countries), $10 (medium-income countries), or $5 (low-income countries).

ISCA will also be running a variety of online events, including:

• Webinars with prominent researchers
• Research design and methods sessions
• Discussion group sessions
• PhD sessions
• Networking sessions

Now is a great time to join ISCA and get involved in a supportive community. Get in contact with us to get the discount.