Internet And Social Capital

In recent years, 'social capital' has become a new hotspot in the research field of social sciences. It has not only attracted the interest of the researchers of sociology, economics,politics and other fields, but also brought the public attention. Social capital, material capital and human capital are reputed as the three great capitals. It is generally agreed that the research on social capital has been started by Jacobs, Pierre Bourdieu, Jean―Claude Passeron and Glenn Loury. The concept and analyzing methods have been improved by James Coleman, Ronald Burt, Robert Putnam, A.Portes and some others. It has been used as a general concept involving all the norms and networks of collective action for the purpose of community income. Since 1990s, social capital has become a hot concept and an important starting point of many subjects. However,achievements on theory are much more than that on practice in China. The dynamic researches on a single community are rare. In addition, the researches on internet and social capital are even more infrequent. Thus this thesis will be an important exploratory work. As one on practice, the thesis observes the website of a new community,Huilongguan in Changping District of Beijing, based on social capital theory, tracking the affect of hlgnet on the production and accumulation of the social capital of Huilongguan, respectively by networks of civic engagement, the norms of reciprocity and the trust. The mainbody of the thesis can be divided into four parts. There is introduction for this thesis in the first part, in which the research object, the reasons for this subject, research methods and courses are expounded. The second part includes Chapter One and Two. At first there is review of the theory of social capital and internet politics. Then it introduces the background of Huilongguan, the history of hlgnet and something else. In this thesis, based on the definition of Robert Putnam, social capital is defined as 'an immaterial resource relative to material capital and human capital, having networks of civic engagement, the norms of reciprocity and the trust as carrier.' It includes not only the characters of organization structure, such as system, norms and network, but also the characters of personality network, such as trust, prestige and social reputation. The third part includes Chapter Three, Four and Five, which discuss the affect of hlgnet on the production and accumulation of the social capital of Huilongguan, respectively through the networks of civic engagement, the norms of reciprocity and the trust. In the development of the networks of civic engagement, hlgnet played an important role. As a result, most associations have developed through hlgnet. Even hlnget itself is a big association. It has a core structure, the pigbig. The major associations in Huilongguan include football union, tennis ball team, swimming team, badminton union, volleyball team and so on. Meanwhile, property owners have also organized various donations. Besides, Huilongguan has its own publications. Then, the networks of civic engagement have fosrmed through a series activities based on hlgnet. Hlgnet is different from some usual virtual community, as it is based on a community in real life. Among members of hlgnet, there is trust rare on other network communities. People often date each other for dinner and help each other through internet. The virtuous circles in fine atmosphere have cultivated the value of 'everyone for one, one for everyone'. In the part of 'Norm', they elected their own right-preserving team and put up a vigorous right-preserving movement. They actively participated in the event of the municipal calling for proposal publiclyand received response. Here as a virtual and practical bridge, hlgnet conjuncted the democracy require and vital interest of the people. No longer based on frothy enthusiasm, hence democracy consciousness has got stable practical basis, which is also a symbol of a well-knit development in the construction of democracy on grass roots in C...