Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ The Network Structure of Social Capital

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
I don't like the phrase 'social capital' - as though it were something that could be hoarded or spent. That said - "The social capital metaphor is that the people who do better are somehow better connected... Holding a certain position in the structure of these relations can be an asset in its own right." Being the one who has access to information first, for example. Being the key connector between two distinct groups of people, closing 'structural holes'. Acting as a knowledge broker. "The famous names, and the semi-famous ones as well who hold the stage less long, are those persons situated at just those points where the networks heat up the emotional energy to the highest pitch. Creativity is the friction of the attention space at the moments when the structural blocks are grinding against one another the hardest." PDF. Via Mathemagenic.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 15, 2024 8:25 p.m.

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