Biography

Tristan Claridge is a social capital expert with over 20 years experience researching and applying the concept to a wide range of contexts. He is a geographer and environmental scientist with a passion for sustainable development and community development. He takes an interdisciplinary perspective by combining the lessons of economics, sociology, political science, psychology, urban planning and any other discipline that contributes understanding to the concept. Tristan has a Masters degree from the University of Queensland, Australia, that included environmental impact assessment, social impact assessment, social planning for development, urban planning, and natural resource management. Tristan was a lecturer for 10 years at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia, and has been actively involved in community development projects. He has provided guidance to hundreds of researchers, and research students from developed and developing countries and his publications on social capital theory are among the most accessed resources on the topic. Tristan’s research on social capital has progressed the theoretical understanding of the concept and its implications. While deeply concerned with improving the theory, he has widely applied the concept. Tristan has applied social capital theory to community development, organisational culture, leadership, and the general challenges of modernity – particularly the role of non-economic forms of capital and their transformative effects on governance.