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"!

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 »

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.

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Timberland CEO and well-known business leader Jeff Swartz called for "new ways to invest in social capital" in an op-ed piece in Friday's Union Leader.  He argues that greater emphasis on cross-sector collaboration, between government and private organizations, and between nonprofits and government, is essential for addressing social problems.  read more »

How might the town meeting tradition incorporate 21st century technology? Should government or private groups take the lead on using web 2.0 technologies to facilitate civic participation? What technologies are most promising in terms of facilitating citizen involvement and collaboration?

These were a few of the questions tackled by the panel on civic engagement at yesterday's Massachusetts Digital Government Summit yesterday. I was joined on the panel by:  read more »

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