Raznolikost opredeljevanja in preučevanja socialnega kapitala v geografiji in sorodnih znanstvenih vedah // The diversity of definitions and research approaches in the concept of social capital in geography and related scientific disciplines

Abstract

Opredelitve in pristopi k preučevanju socialnega kapitala so v znanstvenih vedah (na primer geografiji, sociologiji, zgodovini, politologiji, antropologiji) raznoliki in celo protislovni, koncept socialnega kapitala pa je zato kritiziran zaradi teoretske nekonsistentnosti. Koncept socialnega kapitala se kot predmet preučevanja različnih znanstvenih ved nekritično in brez utemeljitev označuje kot »interdisciplinarni«. Prispevek z namenom osvetlitve interdisciplinarnosti koncepta, vsebinsko analizira 17 opredelitev socialnega kapitala. Z vsebinsko analizo je prepoznanih šest gradnikov socialnega kapitala, ki so med seboj tesno prepleteni in ne omogočajo enoznačne določitve pomenskega jedra. Opisani so raziskovalni pristopi iz geografije in sorodnih ved, ki so zasnovani na teh opredelitvah. Pristopi odsevajo, da se socialni kapital krovno uporablja kot hevristični model za teoretsko, metodološko in epistemološko sicer zelo raznolike raziskave. Raziskav, ki bi bile zasnovane primerjalno, primanjkuje, prezrto pa je tudi preučevanje na lokalni ravni. Koncept socialnega kapitala je razširjen v številnih znanstvenih vedah, vendar pa so raziskave z interdisciplinarno zasnovo dokaj maloštevilne. //

The definitions and research approaches of the social capital are diverse and even contradictory in the scientific disciplines (i.e. geography, sociology, history, political sciences, anthropology). The concept of social capital as a research object of various scientific disciplines is often criticized due to its theoretical inconsistency and labelled as an interdisciplinary approach uncritically and without any references in the scientific literature. Paper aims to enlighten interdisciplinarity of concept through 17 definitions of social capital, which are assembled through literature review. The content analysis points out six building blocks of social capital, which are tightly connected; there is no simple identification of the semantic core of definitions. The research approaches in geography and related disciplines, which are conceptualized based on those definitions, are also described. The research approaches reflect a diversity, as social capital is used as a heuristic model for theoretical, methodological and epistemological diverse researches. Through the literature review, lack of comparative researches on a local level is identified. The concept of social capital is extended in many disciplines, but there are only a few interdisciplinary conceptualized researches.