When talking about the importance of social capital, I often reference research such as Mark Granovetter's "Strength of Weak Ties" article that talk about how our social network helps us find jobs.  The underlying premise of these studies is that the broader our network, the more likely are we are to hear about good jobs, get referrals to opportunities etc.

I came across an interesting twist on this research on Bill Sherman's Aha Moments blog.  Here Sherman summarizes a new study by Bonnie Erickson (see Sherman's post for citation details) which suggests that employers actively seek to hire people who have high social capital, as they value the relationships that a new employee might bring to the company.

Add this to the list of "why social capital is good for you"!

SCI Dorchester was recently featured in a Boston Globe article for hosting the MyDorchester Night, an event designed to integrate the local neighborhoods of Dorchester and help build "social capital". An excerpt follows:

MyDorchester Night, going on Thursday at the Codman Square Tech Center on Washington Street from 6 to 9 p.m., is a free event designed to build social networking and create a sense of togetherness across the urban residential neighborhood.

"One of our main goals is to bring people together from all of Dorchester's neighborhoods," said Jennifer Gerber, 23, of Weston, an Americorps volunteer involved in the event. "Having worked in the community, I've heard a lot about how people sometimes don't like to go into neighborhoods they're not from. We want to get all of the nine neighborhoods together in one place and get to know each other, breaking down the stereotypes."  read more »

Clearly civic engagement has arrived as a major issue.  700 people convened in Worcester last November for the Mass. Civic Engagement Summit and now 400 spent their Saturday at yesterday's Boston Civic Summit.  Co-chaired by City Councilor Maureen Feeney and James Rooney of the Mass. Convention Center, yesterday's event united civic activitists from across Boston's neighborhoods. 

I was only able to attend part of the day due to other commitments.  Ron Bell, Governor Patrick's Director for Community Affairs, got the lunch crowd energized with his remarks.  Tom Sander, Executive Director of the Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America, effectively related concepts of social capital to the concerns of the neighborhood activists in the room.

Interactive technolog used by America Speaks to facilitate the afternoon session allowed participants quickly get a sense of who was in the room and their common ideas and concerns.  I had to leave early but am looking forward to hearing more about the final results of that "21st century town meeting".  read more »

SCI and our civic networking technologies are featured in the March 3, 2008 edition of Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology. Here's an excerpt:

Whereas municipal websites typically list government-sponsored activities and information such as trash pickup schedules, those developed by SCI include both municipal information and events by private organizations and residents.

For example, SCI's MyDorchester.org connects social service agencies with residents they're trying to reach. And its Woburn website offered such information as a summer concert series and a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day event at a local church.

Click here to read the full article. Or, visit our News page for a local archive.

Harvard Professor and Bowling Alone author Robert Putnam has an interesting opinion piece in todays Boston Globe. Putnam's work describing the decline of social capital and civic engagement garnered a lot of attention when it was published in 2000, and was a motivating factor in the founding of SCI. Now, in this piece, he describes evidence that young adults are the one cohort that has had a sustained increase in civic engagement since 9/11. He and others are suggesting this could even be the "New Greatest Generation". His article warns that this bubble could burst should the Democratic nominee wind-up being decided by party superdelegates as opposed to the popular vote. Here at SCI we leave the political commentary to others, but the increasing evidence of sustained civic engagement among young adults is certainly encouraging.

SCI Dorchester Site Director Marisa Luse forwards a fascinating study on college students' use of Facebook. Written by three scholars at Michigan State University, the study surveyed about 280 MSU undergraduates and concludes that Facebook is used primarily for maintaining connections made offline--"maintaining social capital." They also conclude that Facebook is better suited for building "bridging" social capital over "bonding" social capital.  read more »

On Friday, January 25th, SCI convened a group of leaders from the business, nonprofit, and educational sectors for a discussion of how we are using web technologies to increase civic engagement. This event was graciously hosted by the Museum of Science, and was in part a follow-up to our January 11th Brainstorming Session.
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SCI held a brainstorming session Friday, January 11th, generously hosted by the Museum of Science. Attendees included all of SCI's Outreach and Technology AmeriCorps members; SCI staff; SCI Board Member Jamie Hollis; and independent technology consultant Benton Ho.  read more »

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