Rural high school students are much less likely to choose higher education than their urban or suburban peers as their post high school choice. This research examines the process of choice of four rural high school graduates and their lived realities through this transition. From the four interviews conducted reoccurring themes of strong community `kinship,' high support level in school, and low parental attainment immerged. These themes highlight a sacrifice of individual identity for a collective community identity and social context in which fears of difference (race and class) underlie the rejection of foreign experiences. Low parental attainment shifts the cultural capital to peers or teachers while limited ranges of employability further gender and divide post high school choice.

This research focuses on social relationships within a school context and explores how social relationships within that context contribute to the production and reproduction of inequalities. The research draws on Bourdieu's work and examines the key role of schools in reproducing social and cultural inequalities (Bourdieu 1998). The research explores the process of producing and reproducing inequalities from the perspective of the young people. The study uses the lens of social capital to investigate how social relationships in the form of social capital practices operate within the classroom and the wider school context. While acknowledging structural and cultural dimensions highlighted by Bowles and Gintis (1977) and Willis (1981), I seek to explore how the social relationships between young people in a school context contribute to well documented educational inequalities. I argue that Bourdieu's theoretical framework offers the opportunity to explore relationships by placing social capital in relation to other capitals (economic and cultural) and to locate practices of everyday life, thus linking micro-social and macro-social structural factors. The starting position of this research focuses on the micro, i.e., the individual pupils as active agents in relation to social capital within the school context, before locating it within a wider macro context. The research uses a sequential mixed method design collecting data on the participant's social networks and exploring social practices with semi structured interviews. The research highlights how education and schooling produce and reproduce inequalities in and through the two case study sites.

abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine if social capital for parents in a low-income urban school would develop through structured or unstructured parent-teacher meetings. The parent-teacher meetings were developed to provide opportunities for parents and teachers to meet to build relationships and develop trust through teaching and learning how to support reading fluency and reading comprehension strategies. In order to build relationships between parents and teachers both parties need to trust one another. Trust is the foundation of relationships but before parties can trust one another, opportunities to form relationships need to be provided. In the case of parents and teachers, the study suggests that the parent-teacher meetings might be a starting point to provide opportunities to form trusting relationships. As parents and teachers work collaboratively to support the academic needs of the children, parents will increase their social capital and learn how to navigate the school system. The findings of the parent-teacher meetings showed that the perceptions of parents and teachers varied. The findings of the study did not display any noticeable differences in responses between the structured and unstructured group of participants. Parents appreciated meeting with teachers to learn how to support student learning at home and believed teachers were influential in the educational experience of their children. Teachers believed: parents want to support student learning at home, but lack academic skills; parents are the influential in the educational experience of the students; and parents are hesitant to ask school staff for help. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2013

The aim of this research was creating metrics for measuring social connectedness in social media. This thesis made use of social capital theory in order to inform the construction of original metrics. The methodology used in this thesis involved conducting a literature review into the use of social capital theory in social media, proposing new metrics, implementation in software, validation, evaluation against other measures and finally demonstrating the utility of the new metrics. A preliminary case study verified the suitability of using Facebook as a context for developing the metrics. The main practical work outlined in this thesis aimed to validate Social Capital in Social Media (SCiSM) metrics against the Internet Social Capital Scale (ISCS) (Williams 2006). The SCiSM metrics were developed to relate to bonding social capital, bridging social capital and total social capital (Putnam 2000). The methodology used to validate the SCiSM metrics was Meneely (2012) and involved using two independent data sets to validate the SCiSM metrics using both correlations and linear regression. Statistical analysis found a strong positive correlation between ISCS and SCiSM whilst regression analysis demonstrated that the relationship between SCiSM and ISCS was concerned with ranking rather than an absolute number. SCiSM was evaluated against other social capital metrics used in the literature such as degree centrality. It was found that SCiSM had a higher number of significant correlations with the ISCS than other measures. The SCiSM metrics were then used to analyse the two independent data sets in order to demonstrate their utility. The first data set, taken from a Facebook group, was analysed using a paired t-test. It was found that bonding social capital increased over a twelve week period but that bridging social capital did not. The second data set, which was taken from Facebook status updates, was analysed using correlations. The result was that there was a positive correlation between number of Facebook friends and bonding social capital. However it was also found that there was a negative correlation between number of Facebook friends and bridging social capital. This suggests that there is a dilution effect in the usefulness of large friend networks for bridging social capital. In conclusion the problem that this research has addressed is providing a means to improve understanding of social capital in social media.

How do organizations build trust under varying degrees of uncertainty? In this article, we propose that different degrees of uncertainty require different bases of trust. We distinguish between three different forms of trust production (process-based, characteristics-based and institution-based) and develop hypotheses regarding their relative effectiveness under low versus high levels of product and performance uncertainty. Using survey data on 392 interorganizational buyer-seller relationships, we find support for our position that a high degree of uncertainty favours process-based trust production, whereas characteristics-based trust production is relatively more effective when uncertainty is low. The effectiveness of institution-based trust production is not significantly affected by uncertainty. We derive implications for organizational trust production under different degrees of uncertainty, which should encourage new research on trust.

No description available.

In recent years, development practitioners and policy makers have increasingly become interested in social capital as an additional instrument for economic development. However, within the applied economics literature on the adoption of agricultural technologies, research on the role of social capital in adoption decision-making is scant. Furthermore, there is a paucity of information regarding the determinants of social capital accumulation among rural households in developing economies. This study examines the nature of the relationship between social capital and crop management decisions of Ugandan banana farmers. This dissertation develops a model of technology adoption that incorporates social capital and offers two explicit mechanisms through which social capital may influence technology adoption. A model of the agricultural household, which considers the effects of incomplete markets in farm production decisions, provided the theoretical framework for an econometric analysis to predict the choice and demand of improved banana management technology. The core theoretical framework was extended by explicitly incorporating social capital as a component of exogenous income and information accumulation processes. Empirical analysis was based on the primary data collected in a survey of 400 banana-producing households in Uganda through face-to-face interviews with the primary production decision makers. The households were selected from the three major banana-producing regions of Uganda using multi-stage random sampling methods. A combination of econometric methods was employed. A Probit model was used to estimate the probability of using an improved banana management practice and participation in an association. The extent of use of improved banana management practices was estimated by two methods, namely, ordinary least squares (OLS) and the Heckman procedure to account for sample selection in some equations. Intensity of participation in associations was estimated with a Poisson model. A negative binomial model that allows for over dispersion in the data was employed to identify the determinants of the intensity of participation in private social networks. The results of the study indicate that different aspects of social capital shape the decision to use and the extent of use of an improved management practice, but the nature of effect is specific to the practice as well as the form of social capital. Participation in associations and the characteristics of those associations are important determinants of banana production management decisions. Participation in associations and private social networks is, in turn, influenced by household wealth, education, institutional environment, and social heterogeneity of the community. Aside from social capital, other factors that are significant in explaining variation in use of improved crop management practices among farmers have been identified. Market incentives and household factor endowments were the most important of these factors in decisions regarding use of improved banana management practices. The existence of separability between consumption and production decisions, a major analytical feature of the model of the agricultural household, also appears to be practice-specific, which suggests that production orientation is associated with the use of practices. / Thesis (PhD (Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

Background. Access to health care in northern and rural communities has been an ongoing challenge. Training undergraduate medical students in regional sites is one strategy to enhance physician recruitment and retention in rural regions. With this goal in mind, in 2004, the Northern Medical Program was created to bring undergraduate medical education to Prince George. The NMP is also hypothesized to have wider impacts on the community. This study aimed to describe perceptions of the broader impacts of the NMP. Methods. In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with community leaders in various sectors of Prince George. The interviewer probed about perceived current and anticipated future impacts of the program, both positive and negative. A descriptive content analysis was performed. A conceptual framework of hypothesized impacts was created based on the literature and a model of neighbourhood social capital by Carpiano (2006). Findings. Comments were overwhelmingly positive. Impacts were described on education, health services, economy, politics, and media. Some reported negative impacts included tension between the NMP and other departments at UNBC, and a strain on health system resource capacity. Participants also reported that the NMP has impacted social capital in the region. Social capital, defined as the resources belonging to a network of individuals, was a pervasive theme. Impacts on social cohesion, various forms of social capital, access to social capital and outcomes of social capital are described. Conclusions. The full impact of the NMP will likely not be felt for at least a decade, as the program is still relatively new to Prince George. Findings suggest that an undergraduate medical education program can have pervasive impacts in an underserved community. Evaluation of the impact of such programs should be broad in scope. Findings also suggest that impacts of the program on other community sectors and on social capital may in fact lead to greater human capital gains than originally anticipated. A comprehensive communication strategy should be developed and maintained to ensure continued stakeholder support for the program. Next steps include identifying key quantifiable indicators of community impact to track changes in the community over time. / Medicine, Faculty of / Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of / Graduate

Social networking applications (SNAs) have experienced a boom in popularity in recent years. Sites like Facebook and MySpace continuously draw new users, and are successful in organizing groups of users around topics of common interest. Among SNAs, Facebook has demonstrably outgrown its rivals growing an estimated 157 percent from 2008 to 2009. Facebook is now estimated to be the fourth largest Internet site in the world, trailing only Google, Microsoft and Yahoo (Schonfeld 2009). This dissertation posits and tests a theoretical model composed of key factors that contribute to post-adoptive use of social networking applications and the relationship of those factors to one another. This study also identifies and clarifies new constructs that were not previously used to measure usage, and further refines the constructs that were previously used so that they better fit social networking applications. The results of this dissertation show that the critical factors of social capital, hedonic enjoyment, perceived usefulness, social influence, satisfaction and attitude have a positive influence on a post-adoptive user's intention to continue using Facebook. The results of this study yielded a structural model for predicting the post-adoptive use of Facebook. This work also developed an instrument for measuring constructs relevant to social networking applications.

This research, with its focus on liturgy as a field inside practical theology, investigates the role of encounters during the Sunday sermon as well as the sermon of our daily lives. Three encounters are identified and studied. Firstly, the personal encounter between the individual and God. Secondly, encounters between people (where individuals share in each others stories and realities). Thirdly, encounters with the world and society (the missional encounters with the world in need). This research aims to study the impact of these encounters upon Christian identity and the subsequent way of life. The starting point for this research comes from the conviction that liturgy and life are deeply related to one another and that these encounters will therefore not only help maintain church members, but also shape their lives within a unique South African society which is in a continuous transitional phase. These encounters are not only necessary, but also needed to facilitate possibilities for new life realities, which in turn will help shape individual, congregational and societal lives. The research also includes emperical research where the experiences (with regards to the identified encounters) of church members after a traditional sermon, as well as the impact (or lack thereof) on their lives are observed. The findings serves as a valuable resource in determining the possible impact of encounters during the sermon, with the goal of maximising the life-changing potential of church sermons. / Die navorsing wil vanuit 'n studie van liturgie as veld binne die Praktiese Teologie die rol van ontmoetings binne die erediens en daaglikse kerkwees verken. Die navorsing fokus op drie ontmoetings: Eerstens, die ontmoeting tussen God en mens. Tweedens, ontmoetings met mekaar (waar lidmate deel word van mekaar se stories en lewenswerklikhede). Derdens, ontmoetings met die samelewing (die missionale gerigtheid van ons gemeentewees, waar lidmate in aanraking gebring word met die nood in 'n stukkende wêreld en hulle gestuurdheid daarheen besef). Die navorsing ondersoek die impak van hierdie ontmoetings op Christelike identiteit en gepaardgaande lewenswyse. Daar gaan vanuit die oortuiging te werk dat liturgie en lewe ten nouste verbonde is en die voorgestelde ontmoetings uiteindelik nie alleen lidmate wil behou nie, maar hulle leefstyl in Suid-Afrika wil vorm binne 'n voortgaande oorgangsproses. Dit is vanuit hierdie ontmoetings dat nuwe lewenswerklikhede moontlik word wat 'n impak op die individu, gemeente en samelewing kan maak. Die studie sluit empiriese navorsing, waar die eredienservarings (ten opsigte van die fokus- ontmoetings) van lidmate vanuit 'n gemeente in die noorde van Pretoria, na afloop van die gemeente se primêre erediens en die impak daarvan op hul identiteit en lewe verken word, in. Met hierdie empiriese navorsing as hulpmiddel, verken die navorsing die belangrikheid van hierdie ontmoetings binne die erediens, met die doel om die lewensimpakterende potensiaal van die erediens en ons daaglikse kerkwees tot sy volle reg te laat kom. / Dissertation (MTh)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Practical Theology / MTh / Unrestricted