Social Capital Research

Social capital problem came up as an international hot issue and cutting-edge issue in 1980s and 1990s. The reason why this question attracted people's attention is that the concept of social capital is interdisciplinary and unique and social capital is related with the realities of social development nowadays.Social capital is more than the social sciences which many social scientific subjects have carried out from different point of view and made a lot of results. But most of these research focused on appliance of social capital and were rarely associated with the basis of theoretical issues of social capital. So the thesis is going to attempt to explore the basis of social capital theory and to deepen the understanding of social capital.This article is composed of three parts, i.e. the introduction, the text and the conclusion.The introduction makes description on the meanings and actuality of the study, study positioning, study content and study methods.The text is from Chapter one to six.Chapter one: The Definition of Social Sapital. According to the history of the evolution of capital, this part thinks that the connotation of capital changes with the times. Social capital is a new concept after physical capital, human capital and cultural capital. The concept not only enriches the connotation of the capital but also emphasizes the function of social relations. For the concept of social capital, different social sciences have different understanding. From social philosophy, the concept of social capital is the social relations resources that can bring much reciprocation for subject.Chapter two: The Basic Attributes, Characteristics and Classificationn of Social Sapital. First this part analyzes the basic attributes of social capital, thinks that they have subjectivity and objectivity, absolute and relative, stability and change and as a historic being, people can be able to return from them. In addition, social capital is intangible capital and public goods, has the non-equilibrium characteristic. In social capital, network of social relations, norms and trust are the three elements. Because of different perspectives into social capital, various types of social capital comes into being.Chapter Three: Functions of Social Capital. Social capital has not only active functions but also negative functions. Actively, social capital can promote social and human development through such means as social integration, social support, and social control; negatively, social capital may restrict social and human development, for which prevention needs both the increase of the stock of social capital and the enhancement of international communications.Chapter Four: The Generation, Evolution and Operation of Social Capital. As a source of social relation, the generation of social capital follows up that of social relation closely, and basises itself on realistic human being, material production praxis, communication practice, and human demand. The evolution of social capital has experienced three stages:the social capital of blood and regional relationship, the social capital of citizenship, the social capital of network affinity. The evolution of social capital is gradual, accumulative, and progressive. The operation of social capital will experience thress periods: investment period, maintenance period, weakening and disapearance period.Chapter Five: The Evaluation of Social Capital. The evaluation of social capital means the social subject will retain a utility relationship between itself and social capital based on its reflection or judgement. The evaluation of social capital should be subeject-oriented, scientific, effective, and systematic. In the macro sense, the evaluation of social capital may be based on objective measure and subjective measure, although in other senses, its measurement may be multi-dimensional. While examing social capital, we should combine both individual evaluation and group evaluation, qualitative evaluation and quantitative evaluation.Chapter Six: The Situation and Construction of Chinese Social Capital in the Transformation Period. It holds that, Chinese society today is in a period of double transformation. In such period, Chinese social capital has many forms which mainly manifest on that all forms of traditional social capital and modern social capital co-exist in Chinese society today. Therefore, in order to construct the social capital of Chinese transformation period, we should not only guide and excavate tranditional social capital, but also encourage and develop modern social capital, expecially the social capital of citizenship, for which we should cultivate civil awareness, civil spirit, mutual trust between citizens, and establish civil organizations, and all kind of social regulations.Conclusion: It's a conclusion of this paper, and it explains the innovations and defects of this paper.