Faculty of Humanities School of Graduate Social Foe Humanities and Scocial Science 0419064g admachava@yahoo.com / This case study constitutes an example of how local social networks among refugees/immigrants communities and, between them and their hosts are fundamental in accessing different ranges of paid employment. Their relevance is here explained in contexts whereby social, economic, legal and skills play a significant role in accessing jobs and shaping the social relations between people. This case study argues that social networks are important because of lack of employment opportunities. However Mozambicans have difficulty accessing necessary social networks because of tensions with South Africans and suspicion among themselves. These factors are aggravated by lack of education and skills. This research demonstrates that networks among former Mozambican refugees and between them and South African are shaped by contextual factors namely; the endemic hard socio-economic problems targeting the region thus affecting the employment market, the political and legal transformations introduced in the country following the fall of apartheid which have fuelled the tension between the citizens and foreigners and most important, the lack of legal status, skills and experience affecting the former Mozambican refugees. Although the South Africans face the same problems the impact is likely to be different.

No description available.

This paper starts where previous research in this scientific field, research about individuals who managed to end their criminal lifestyle, ends – by talking in terms of Pierre Bourdieu’s forms of capital. In former studies the researchers pointed out access to a job and parenting as helpful factors to end a criminal lifestyle. Our purpose with this paper, however, was to find out if it is possible to understand criminals successfully ending their criminal lifestyle from Bourdieu’s capital metaphors and Mark Granovetter’s concept of strong and weak ties. The empirical data consists of interviews with a life story perspective by eight members of an organization called KRIS (Criminals Return Into Society). All the interviewees included in this study have managed to end their respective criminal lifestyle. The results indicate that our interviewees had help in their ending of the criminal lifestyle by access to or by establishing social capital. The social capital in the interviewees’ cases were constituted by on one hand strong ties, on the other hand weak ties. In a couple of cases both types of ties were involved. Nevertheless, the results indicate that the social capital itself cannot make an ending of the criminal lifestyle possible. The following factors in the individual’s life has to be fulfilled in order to end his or hers criminal lifestyle: (1) exhort a strong motive inside him-/herself, (2) accept no drug use of any kind and (3) carry through a switch of field from the criminal society to the conventional.

The primary purpose of this study was to identify dimensions of weak tie relationships including characteristics (e.g., distinctive qualities, traits, or properties), functions (e.g., outcomes, purposes, or meanings derived from the interaction) and determinants of engagement to gain insight into the weak tie exchange process and develop frameworks that can be used to operationalize the concept. Data were collected through stories provided by participants during face-to-face interviews. Respondents recounted a situation when someone they did not know well and to whom they did not feel particularly close provided them with assistance. Over 70 stories were collected from 50 adults aged 65 and older who were active in their community. Stories collected were analyzed using an inductive approach that was supported by the concepts of interpersonal tie strength, loose connections, social exchange theory, and social support. Findings suggest that weak tie relationships occur in a variety of community settings and in response to a variety of daily challenges. The exchanges occur more frequently with acquaintances than strangers and the initiator of the exchange is generally the person offering support. The types of support offered are broad-based and include instrumental, emotional, and informational support. Weak tie exchanges range from one-time brief interactions to intermittent exchanges over extended periods, depending on the circumstances. Findings also suggest that weak ties have a specific task or purpose, encourage awareness about the value and purpose of social interactions, and influence participants' future social interactions. Six factors were identified as determinants of engagement in weak ties: situational factors, personal characteristics, judgments of responsibility, attitudes about helping behaviors, personal network type, and exchange history. The findings from this study provide a foundation for further conceptualization of weak ties and a framework on which to develop instruments to measure tie strength and the potential for engaging in weak tie exchanges. / Ph. D.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to explore the important factors that affect graduate employment such as human capital, social capital and university career services. It focuses on the graduate labour market in the UK and uses mixed methods. While quantitative data derive from a survey, qualitative data come from interviews and secondary sources in a case study. The survey includes 947 university graduates and qualitative data consist of 8 interviews, internal and external reports. The findings show that the level of human capital and social capital affect the way graduates find a job and the use of social capital in job searches varies by ethnicity, age and academic level. However, gender and academic discipline do not affect the use of social capital in the UK graduate labour market. Moreover, the study shows that university career services can play an important role in job searches. Overall, however, direct application and online career services are two most widely used methods to find a job. The originality of the research is twofold. Firstly, it illustrates the relationship between two important components in graduates’ job search processes: human capital and social capital. Secondly, it examines the role of an institution: university career services and displays the importance of institutional approaches in building a bridge between students and employers.

The purpose of the following essay is to study and explain how young adults use their social networks when it comes to finding a job. This study was conducted using nine semi-structured interviews with young adults with some form of employment. We used Granovetter’s theory about strong and weak ties, Bourdieu’s capital theory, Lin’s social reources theory and Putnam’s reasoning about generalized reciprocity. The result shows that social capital is a decisive factor in how young individuals use their social contacts. The volume of social capital is determined by economic resources, social background and the size of the social network. Less resourceful groups have a tendency to take advantage of the strong ties, i.e. family and relatives, often when looking for their first job. The weak ties, i.e. acquaintances, are used later in life when the individual has greater resources and networks. Individuals from the privileged groups may not always be able to work on their parents’ company as a first job, because they might require certain qualifications to do so. However, these job positions become possible for the young individuals from resourceful groups when they accomplish a relevant education. That's when they get the chance to use the resources that are embedded in their strong ties.

Föreningsidrotten är en stor del av det svenska samhället och kan vara en plats som främjar en ömsesidig integration mellan svenskfödda och nyligt invandrade. Samtidigt som idrottsvärlden kan vara en plats för god gemenskap kan det även vara en plats för utslagning och exkludering. Syftet med studien har två delar. Första delen handlar om att undersöka varför och hur idrottsföreningar i Umeå agerar gällande inkludering av medlemmar generellt. Därefter syftar studien till att analysera dessa idrottsföreningars förhållningssätt och agerande i förhållande till gruppen nyligt invandrade specifikt. Den teoretiska ramen bygger på inkludering i förhållande till Granovetters begrepp weak ties som belyser vikten av svaga sociala band för att knyta samman heterogena grupper och skapa en sammanhållning som överbryggar bland annat kulturella gränser. Metodens utgångspunkt är kvalitativ ur två aspekter: den första avser att det är en fallstudie som handlar om idrottsföreningar i Umeå. Den andra handlar om att uppsatsens centrala empiriska material har samlats in genom kvalitativa intervjuer med centrala aktörer och aktiva personer inom både lag- och individuella idrotter. Resultatet är brett men handlar om att idrottsföreningarnas struktur, ”sätt att tänka” och föreningsaktivas agerande kan fungera exkluderande eftersom det skapas barriärer som nyligt invandrade har svårt att komma förbi och därmed försvåras ett deltagande i idrottsföreningar. Barriärerna har teoretiskt beskrivits utifrån Stigendals definition av målgruppsbarriär, ordningsbarriär samt resursbarriär. Att uppnå inkludering är att förmedla en upplevelse av delaktighet och gemenskap inom föreningen. Problem uppstår i ett första skede på grund av målgruppsbarriärer och rekryteringsmetoder. Studien har uppmärksammat att det förekommer en kollektivisering av nyanlända som grupp, en andrafiering görs och fungerar i sig som en uteslutande mekanism vilket tyder på att det finns en strukturell diskriminering av ”de andra”. Däremot i de fall där nyanlända har inkluderats visar det sig att de barriärer och hinder som annars beskrivits har minskat eller försvunnit. Den lyckade interaktionen kan förklaras med att svaga band som skapas i sociala sammanhang fungerar som broar mellan sociala grupperingar och resulterar inte bara i att nätverken blir större utan även att fler ges möjligheten till att inkluderas. En kumulativ effekt av inkludering visar sig och en kollektivisering av nyligt invandrade kan bli svagare. / In i Umeå

The purpose of this study is: 1) to explore the ways in which the Internet may affect individuals’ political diversity in different strengths of social relationships; 2) to identify which of strong-tie diversity and weak-tie diversity contributes more to political tolerance; and 3) to investigate the extent to which tolerant people are different from the less tolerant in their participation decisions when exposed to political diversity. In order to examine the contribution of Internet news use to political heterogeneity, the current study examines the moderation of the negative influence of politically selective exposure on the Internet on political diversity in social networks by Internet news use. To identify the better contributor to tolerance, the two diversities are compared. To assess the consequence of exposure to political difference for political participation for tolerant and less tolerant people, the present study examines any moderating effect of tolerance between political network heterogeneity and participation. It also observes the moderating effect in different tie strengths. This study utilizes data obtained from the U.S. Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy (CID) survey conducted by a collaboration of Center for Democracy and Civil Society at Georgetown University and the European Social Survey. The sample is 1,001 adults aged 18 and over and representative of the contiguous United States. The dataset contains items concerning Internet use, informal social networks, the composition and diversity of ties and associations, democratic values and tolerance under the primary themes of democracy, social capital and civic engagement. The data are analyzed by hierarchical and OLS regression. According to the findings, Internet news use contributes to individuals’ overall political diversity by reducing the negative influence of the selective exposure occurring from online interaction with homogeneous people. When examined in different strengths of interpersonal relationships, selective exposure discourages strong-tie diversity while encouraging weak-tie diversity. Internet news use positively affects strong-tie diversity but had no influence on weak-tie diversity. Weak-tie diversity is found to be a better contributor to political tolerance. Politically tolerant individuals tend to be discouraged for political participation when exposed to difference in their social relationships. Therefore, while political tolerance may increase overall political diversity, it may as well threaten the balance between deliberation and participation. Closer interpersonal associations are not found to reduce the demobilizing effect of exposure to difference for tolerant individuals. / text

Club Texas: Building Community in Electronic Music Fan Culture through Online Collaboration is a report of results from a content analysis that analyzes the role of online participatory culture for community development and social capital for a local underground EDM ‘scene’ (Electronic Dance Music) in Dallas, TX. This study analyzes DallasDanceMusic.com (DDM), one of the first and largest message board communities to support the EDM community in Dallas, TX since 1994. The study measures participatory culture and social capital using content analysis of the site during high profile activity for a four-month period in 2012. / text