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Date: | Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:34:12 +0000 |
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FYI.
http://www.respublica.org.uk/blog/2011/01/anticipating-%E2%80%98unanticipated-gains%E2%80%99
Anticipating the 'Unanticipated Gains'
A new approach to social capital
by Adam Coutts
In his book Unanticipated Gains, Mario Small focuses on how social capital
may actually be created through our interactions within one another and the
organisations with which we work - often in ways which are unexpected, or
incidental to purpose. This is important stuff - we know quite a bit about
the importance of social capital and the effects of being socially
isolated; but also very little about how service delivery and social
interventions lead to a decline or increase in the 'stocks' of individual
and neighbourhood social capital. Small suggests that the aim should be to
design in from the outset support for social capital into the 'routine'
organisations and programmes that people frequently use and interact with
on a day-to-day basis providing additional benefits to both society and
service recipient. Although he focuses on childcare centres, his argument
can be extended to the broadest range of public service interventions,
including labour market training and skills programmes, social housing
providers, community groups, gyms and other such institutions. A more
radical approach might involve encouraging private sector organisations to
consider how the delivery of their services might similarly provide
spin-off benefits for the communities within which they work, through
socially-focused design, rather than through corporate social
responsibility add-ons.
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