9,282 research outputs found

    The NGO Sector in Community Development: Emerging roles, strategies and identities

    Get PDF
    This community engaged thesis will articulate some of the identities, patterns, and dominant practices of NGOs related to community development in the hope of uncovering emerging trends. The literature review of this thesis will have a slight focus on NGO’s working in direct conjunction with the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, it will manifest the promise of social capital as necessary to an organization’s success. Civic participation remains critical in enabling an NGO to be politically active, to continue building networks, and instilling positive social attitudes. After expounding on these issues, this thesis will then propose a solution- more specifically, a model- that attempts to relate field research findings to current grassroot initiatives that have succeeded in achieving community development through youth empowerment and education in Rhode Island. The strategy of youth empowerment and civic engagement is an effective model for community development and positive social change. By sharing insights and identifying best practices, the NGO sector can enhance coordination and partnerships for effective country-level implementation of youth development initiatives. The author hopes that the findings of this thesis and her field research will be employed and utilized in the development of progressive community-based organizations dedicated to combating the HIV/AIDS virus in Africa

    Peripheral Regions in Duress: Counter-Social Capital Impediments of Local Development in Rural Greek Areas

    Get PDF
    Unlike most enthusiastic narratives of various success stories in recent North European regional economic development led by innovation, localized learning, social capital and institutional embeddedness, this paper deals with a set of major stresses and problems of local economic development in peripheral, less favoured, regions. By drawing upon concrete research experience of regional development projects we try to shed light upon the processes of spatio-economic change and the management of local production in connection with prevailing cultural attitudes/values in less developed Greek rural areas. attidudes/values constituting a kind of localized “counter-social capital†deposit that impedes any likely innovative local development initiatives. The paper argues that the major problems facing these areas are not only or solely associated with the effects of market economy restructuring and the operation of macroeconomic and macropolitical forces at the regional and local level, but, also with inadequate management of human skills, lack of productive mentality and negative cultural values and attitudes. The policy relevance of our analysis calls for the elaboration of alternative development strategies aimed rather at enchancing local social capital potentialities than at improving hard infrastructures and providing financial incentives to local firms.

    What's the big idea? A critical exploration of the concept of social capital and its incorporation into leisure policy discourse

    Get PDF
    Starting from the overwhelming welcome that Putnam's (2000) treatise on social capital has received in government circles, we consider its relative merits for examining and understanding the role for leisure in policy strategies. To perform this critique we identify some of the key points from Putnam's work and also illustrate how it has been incorporated into a body of leisure studies literature. This is then extended to a discussion of the methodological and theoretical underpinnings of his approach and its link to civic communitarianism. We suggest that the seduction of the 'niceness' of Putnam's formulation of social capital not only misses the point of the grimness of some people's lives but it also pays little attention to Bourdieu's point that poorer community groups tend to be at the mercy of forces over which they have little control. We argue that if the poor have become a silent emblem of the ways in which the state has more and more individualised its relationship with its citizens, it is they who also tend to be blamed for their own poverty because it is presumed that they lack social capital. This in turn encourages 'us' to determine what is appropriate for 'them'. As a critical response to this situation, we propose that Bourdieu's take on different forms of 'capital' offers more productive lines for analysis. From there we go on to suggest that it might be profitable to combine Bourdieu's sociology with Sennett's recent interpretation of 'respect' to formulate a central interpretive role for community leisure practitioners - recast as cultural intermediaries - if poorer community groups are to be better included. © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd

    Networks, [Mis]trust, and Pentecostal Conversion: narratives of divergent pathways among small Black entrepreneurs in Tshwane

    Get PDF
    This thesis is an exploration of the cultural meanings, practices, and discourse that impinge upon the workings of social capital and trust among small black entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs need to draw on social networks to get advice and resources to launch and manage a business. The contacts that lead to successful outcomes are their social capital and they are a key component of entrepreneurial networks. Structural economic sociologists tend to emphasise 'structural holes', whereby a social actor who is in a position to bridge two actors with no direct ties to each other can parlay control over information into strategic advantage. Recent sociological literature highlights questions of meaning in networks and brings to the fore concerns with the larger cultural framework within which social networks are embedded. Relational economic sociologists contend that networks can be understood as composed of culturally constituted processes. Studies on the networks of South African entrepreneurs are few and far between, and they seem to suggest that African entrepreneurs don't mobilise social capital as well as their Indian and white counterparts. The research used qualitative approaches, relying on a combination of in-depth open-ended unstructured interviews and prolonged ethnographic immersion which generated rich understandings of entrepreneurs' lived experiences, subjective meanings, and contexts. The findings underscore the cultural contingency of social ties and network structure, suggesting that an entrepreneur's proneness to join particular types of associations and networks, and their ability to generate particular types of social ties and generalised trust has something to do with a range of cultural contingencies. The research devoted special attention to the cultural contingency of religion, bringing to light the entrepreneurial consequences of Pentecostal conversion. These intersect with, and extend far beyond, the networks of small black entrepreneurs, affecting issues at the very heart of entrepreneurship such as risk taking and proactiveness. I borrow the concept of 'cultural holes' to illustrate the contingencies of meaning that shape the networks and the entrepreneurial orientation of small black entrepreneurs and, ultimately, drive their divergent entrepreneurial trajectories. Finally, the study adumbrates a typology of small black entrepreneurs, arguing for the possibility that multiple cultural contingencies may open up alternate understandings of entrepreneurship

    'Joining up' : a study of partnership in post-16 learning

    Get PDF
    This thesis examines the concept and practice of partnership in the context of post-16 learning. The study explores the process of partnership working through a qualitative case study of a sub-regional partnership that aims to widen participation in post-16 learning through its collaborative activities. The investigation seeks to learn about the basis of partnership and to identify characteristics that contribute to continued and effective partnership working. Drawing on understandings of partnership in policy, theory and in practice, I develop a more detailed conceptualisation of partnership than is currently available in the field of post-16 learning. The history, development and work of the case study partnership were investigated through a combination of methods including observations of partnership meetings, documentary evidence of partnership working and semi-structured interviews with participants in the case study. The interviews with senior managers of institutions and organisations that provide education, training and guidance for post-16 learners in the Black Country, a sub-region of the Midlands in England, focused on the reasons for participation in a partnership and the aspects of partnership working that contribute to sustainability in partnerships. The findings give a rich insight into the practicalities of working in partnership with individuals and organisations and provide a basis for theorising partnership as a heterogeneous concept and practice rather than a homogenous entity. The case study reveals both the potential of partnership and the challenges to partnership working, such as resource and power differentials. It also shows how social capital can provide the basis for sustained partnership and function as a resource that can be used in similar ways to other forms of capital. This insight is used together with characteristics drawn from the partnership literature to theorise partnership as a continuum of weak to strong forms of partnership, which function on the basis of different types and levels of trust, the operation of formal and informal networks and shared norms and values amongst actors

    Resiliencia por lazos de solidaridad

    Get PDF
    This article considers an empirical approach to the relationships among three well known concepts: “Benevolence” (Schwartz), Solidarity and Resilience ("Subjective wellbeing scale" - SWB). The first concept refers to cultural values, the second one to social networks and the third to the ability to recover from crisis. The measurement of solidarity has been done from the point of view of supportive ties. The baseline hypothesis considers that the presence of a high value in Benevolence contributes to the involvements in solidarity networks. Participation in supportive relationships facilitates recovery from personal crisis. Using data from the European Social Survey (ESS6), we conclude from this structural analysis that the resilience reflected in a society is partly a consequence of the supportive networks shaped by the presence of benevolence values.Tras introducir teóricamente los conceptos de "Benevolencia" (Schwartz), "Lazos de solidaridad" y "Resiliencia", se presenta su operativización en la Encuesta Social Europea de 2012. La hipótesis de partida plantea que la presencia de un valor alto en Benevolencia influye en la participación en interacciones solidarias y que la participación en redes solidarias facilita el recobrarse de las crisis. A partir de estos datos, y considerando varias sociedades europeas, se han testado dos modelos alternativos, según el efecto de la Benevolencia y los lazos de solidaridad sobre la resiliencia. Se concluye que existe un efecto directo de los valores de Benevolencia sobre la Solidaridad, y de esta sobre la Resiliencia. La influencia de los valores de Benevolencia sobre la Resiliencia se establece de forma indirecta mediante la activación de relaciones solidarias.This article is integrated in the research program “Civil Engagement in Social Work: Developing Global Models”, funded by FP7 UE. PEOPLE-2012-IRSES. Grant Agreement Number 318938. Civil Engagement in Social Work: Developing Global Models (CIVIL-SW). PIRSES-GA-2012-318938

    The practice of social entrepreneurship: Theory and the Swedish experience

    Get PDF
    The notion of social entrepreneurship has gained increasing recognition in the last years, both as an increasingly visible mode of economic action, and as an important policy tool. The paper outlines a typology that departs from a Schumpeterian view of entrepreneurship, that centers on the creation of new combinations of resources, and focuses on the nature of actors engaging in the pursuit, and the nature of resources mobilized. The analysis is illustrated by case study material on social enterprises that operate on the boundaries of the Swedish Welfare State, and historical examples taken from co-operative enterprises. Social entrepreneurship may be mapped on such a typology as a category of entrepreneurship that primarily (a) is engaged in by collective actors, and (b) involves, in a central role in the undertaking's resource mix, socially embedded resources. Social entrepreneurship that involves (or centers on) a business activity is one important subcategory of the field. It necessarily spans the boundary between different rule regimes that define resources and their utilization (cf. Polanyi 1944/2001: 57). The core business activity would thus involve the tapping of socially embedded resources and their conversion into (market-) convertible resources. As importantly, to ensure the undertaking's (or enterprise's) survival over time, it would also be expected to contribute to the replenishment of such resources, reconverting market resources into social capital. --

    People as Resources: Recruitment and Reciprocity in the Freedom-Promoting Approach to Property

    Get PDF
    Theorists usually explain and evaluate property regimes either through the lens of economics or by conceptions of personhood. This Article argues that the two approaches are intertwined in a way that is usually overlooked. Property law both facilitates the efficient use and allocation of scarce resources and recognizes and protects aspects of personhood. It must do both, because human beings are both resources for one another and the persons whose moral importance the legal system seeks to protect. This Article explores how property law has addressed this paradox in the past and how it might in the future. Two bodies of nineteenth-century law highlighted this paradox: the law of labor discipline for slaves in the antebellum South and for free workers in the laissez-faire Lochner era. The law struggled over how to balance recognition of laborers\u27 bodies as resources with regard for them as legal persons. These jurisprudential problems tracked contemporary debates in political and economic thought about the nature of property in human beings. Both the legal debates and their broader counterparts responded to the underlying problem of designating a boundary between those respects in which people are to be regarded as resources and those in which their personhood comes first. Disputes over this boundary are disputes over both claims on resources and the moral importance of human beings. This analysis illuminates the stakes of two contemporary issues: voluntary peer production in digital media and the entrance of women in developing countries into the paid workforce. Both demonstrate how legal, technological, and social changes in people\u27s status as resources interact with changes in how they do or may value one another. When the resource-regime changes are in the direction of greater reciprocity, they may help to produce a more robust conception of personhood and a more egalitarian and attractive social life

    Freedom, family, hope and rewards? Points of departure for development studies research on direct selling

    Get PDF
    corecore