Report available for download on the Commission for Racial Equality site: 

http://www.cre.gov.uk/research/socialcapital.html

Background to this research Social capital is a concept that is both 
contested and often indistinctly defined. It runs throughout discussions 
about social cohesion and the integration of deprived and minority groups 
who are socially excluded from relations with mainstream society.

This report theorises that social capital is a network-based process that 
can generate both positive and negative outcomes through social norms and 
trust, and that these are shaped at the societal, neighbourhood and 
individual level.

The research project had three main objectives:

Understand the available data sources underpinning social capital 
indicators in the UK; Provide clear information about available data 
sources underpinning social capital indicators in the USA Understand the 
extent to which UK data can reliably map onto indicators in the USA The 
ability to measure social capital will, in theory, allow policy-makers to 
gage levels of social cohesion and integration in neighbourhoods and 
communities. This will in turn suggest ways in which policies might be 
adapted to nurture and strengthen integration and social cohesion.

Top of this page

What did this report recommend? The main recommendation of this report is 
that the CRE should work towards the development of indicators of bonding 
and bridging social capital at individual and community level.

Social capital analysis can assist us in understanding, and therefore 
supporting, those factors which can drive society down the path towards 
integration. However, in order to do so, it is essential that the UK 
develops methods of measurement to:

assess the make-up of social capital networks; and go beyond national 
samples towards more embedded means of assessment which allow analysis to 
relate findings to specific social contexts. The report also recommends 
building on the work done to date in the UK, by using the Office for 
National Statistics' Harmonised Question Set as a basis to which further 
indicators can be added.

The CRE should work with other interested agencies, such as the Home Office 
and other government departments, and in collaboration with the ONS, to 
develop such indicators and conduct the surveys that will carry them. It 
should also seek to broaden its list of partners in this project further, 
by reaching out to UK academic communities which have an interest in this 
field, such as the social change initiative carried out at Manchester 
University and Harvard University, or the Leverhulme Programme on Migration 
and Citizenship.

-------------------
Problems/Questions? Send it to Listserv owner: [log in to unmask]


To unsubscribe, send the following message in the text section -- NOT the subject header --  to [log in to unmask]

SIGNOFF SDOH

DO NOT SEND IT BY HITTING THE REPLY BUTTON. THIS SENDS THE MESSAGE TO THE ENTIRE LISTSERV AND STILL DOES NOT REMOVE YOU.

To subscribe to the SDOH list, send the following message to [log in to unmask] in the text section, NOT in the subject header.

SUBSCRIBE SDOH yourfirstname yourlastname

To post a message to all 1200+ subscribers, send it to [log in to unmask]
Include in the Subject, its content, and location and date, if relevant.

For a list of SDOH members, send a request to [log in to unmask]

To receive messages only once a day, send the following message to [log in to unmask]
SET SDOH DIGEST

To view the SDOH archives, go to: https://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/sdoh.html