Theories of social capital : researchers behaving badly / Ben Fine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fine, Ben.

Contributor:

International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy.

Series:

Political economy and development.

Political Economy and Development

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social capital (Sociology).

Physical Description:

ix, 271 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London : Pluto Press ; New York : Distributed in the United States by Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Tracing the evolution of social capital since his highly acclaimed contribution of 2001 (Social Capital Versus Social Theory), Ben Fine consolidates his position as the world's leading critic of the concept. Fine forcibly demonstrates how social capital has expanded across the social sciences only by degrading the different disciplines and topics that it touches: a McDonaldisation of social theory. The rise and fall of social capital at the World Bank is critically explained as is social capital's growing presence in disciplines, such as management studies, and its relative absence in others, such as social history. Writing with a sharp critical edge, Fine not only deconstructs the roller-coaster presence of social capital across the social sciences but also draws out lessons on how (and how not) to do research.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

1. Introduction

2. From Rational Choice to McDonaldisation

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Pegging a Survey

2.3 Social Capital as McDonaldisation

2.4 The McDonaldisation Menu

2.5 Concluding Remarks

3. The Short History of Social Capital

3.1 Introduction

3.2 'Twixt Becker and Bourdieu

3.3 Departing Neo-Liberalism?

3.4 Social Capital as Ploughman's Lunch

3.5 Concluding Remarks

4. The BBI Syndrome

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Social Capital as Black Hole

4.3 BBI Gender on the Dark Side

4.4 Social Capital in Context - Or Vice Versa

4.5 BBBI by Way of Concluding Remarks

5. Social Capital versus Social History

5.1 Introduction

5.2 The Historical Dog that Did Not Bark

5.3 From Social Capital to History

5.4 The Present as History

5.5 There Is No Alternative

6. Social Capital is Dead: Long Live Whatever Comes Next

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Social Capital's Irresistable Rise

6.3 ... and Fall

6.4 Strategic Weaknesses are Tactical Strengths

6.5 Deconstructing the Buzz

6.6 GBS, Hegel and Abraham Lincoln

7. Management Studies Goes to McDonald's

7.1 Introduction

7.2 'Twixt Heterodoxy and Parasitism

7.3 It Ain't Critical

7.4 … And It Ain't Marxist

7.5 Concluding Remarks

8. Degradation without Limit

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Putnamenology

8.3 The Dismal (Social) Science

8.4 In Social Capital We Trust

8.5 Concluding Remarks

9. W(h)ither Social Capital?

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Flavouring But Not Favouring Social Capital

9.3 Measure for Measure

9.4 Social Capital as Policy?

9.5 The Last Word - Again

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Published in association with the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

CC BY-NC-ND

ISBN:

9781783716555

178371655X

9781849644426

184964442X

OCLC:

658045154

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access