Measurement of individual social capital

The last twenty years have seen the idea of social capital blossoming as a popular and promising new look at phenomena in the social sciences. Essentially a theory that explains how and why relational networks are important for the production of outcomes at the individual and collective level, social capital may form a powerful additional perspective for the investigation of inequality questions. Nevertheless, several unresolved issues and ambiguities regarding the application of social capital theory still remain. One of these is its measurement. "Measurement of individual social capital" studies the operationalisation and measurement of social capital at the level of individuals, defined as the collection of resources owned by members of an individual's personal social network, which may become available for use as a result of investments in personal relationships. After introducing an extensive conceptualisation in the first part of the book, several ideas for the construction of single and multiple sets of indicators are discussed, based on theoretical arguments as well as explorative empirical investigations.