The impact of Facebook use on micro-level social capital: a synthesis

The relationship between Facebook use and micro-level social capital has received substantial scholarly attention over the past decade. This attention has resulted in a large body of empirical work that gives insight into the nature of Facebook as a social networking site and how it influences the social benefits that people gather from having social relationships. Although the extant research provides a solid basis for future research into this area, a number of issues remain underexplored. The aim of the current article is twofold. First, it seeks to synthesize what is already known about the relationship between Facebook use and micro-level social capital. Second, it seeks to advance future research by identifying and analyzing relevant theoretical, analytical and methodological issues. To address the first research aim, we first present an overview and analysis of current research findings on Facebook use and social capital, in which we focus on what we know about (1) the relationship between Facebook use in general and the different subtypes of social capital; (2) the relationships between different types of Facebook interactions and social capital; and (3) the impact of self-esteem on the relationship between Facebook use and social capital. Based on this analysis, we subsequently identify three theoretical issues, two analytical issues and four methodological issues in the extant body of research, and discuss the implications of these issues for Facebook and social capital researchers

Adequacy of current design tools and methods for solar architecture – results of IEA-SHC Task 41’s international survey

The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Task 41: Solar Energy and Architecture gathers researchers, academics and practicing architects from 14 countries in a project pursuing the objectives to identify and address obstacles that architects are facing in solar design. Part of this three-year project is the development of an international survey -intended for practicing architects- addressing a broad range of issues from passive and active solar design to the availability and adequacy of existing digital tools. This paper presents parts of the results of this international survey related to Task 41 Subtask B: Tools and methods for solar design. The results show that there is still a need to improve tools and methods for architects such as increased support needed for decision-making and for solar design in CAAD tools. The results also state that architects’ skills with regards to solar design in tools are ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’. Furthermore, results indicate that decision-making for the integration of solar technologies in the conceptual phase is mainly handled by the architects alone. Finally, the results show that tools need to be simpler, that the interoperability between software needs to be improved, that tools should provide key data about solar energy aspects as well as explicit feedback to the architect, and that tools need a better visualisation especially for active solar energy systems