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This study has been undertaken to analyse the potential of sport as cultural capital in the South African Police Service. There is a need to determine the role of sport in the SAPS and its realisation as a cultural capital and to also find out why the SAPS does not fully realise sport as Cultural Capital. The study offers an understanding of aspects of law enforcement agency sport, cultural and social capital, social cohesion, the social role of sport, sport governance, political power and struggle and sport policy in the SAPS. A review of relevant literature dealing with sport in the law enforcement agencies, cultural and social capital and sport policy was carried out. The sources to gather information embody: books, magazines, articles, newspapers, Government media reports, journals and information from the internet. Single stage sampling procedure was used as the researcher has access to names in the population and can sample the people or other elements directly (Creswell, 2009). A schedule of questions served as the main data collection tool, and it was piloted on ten per cent of the members of the population who did not serve in the final sample of respondents. This exercise assisted in validating the questions. The qualitative study was done with face-to-face semi-structured interviews to get the views of SAPS sport participants relating to SAPS sport. The questions schedule was used to conduct face-to-face interviews to collect data analysed using Atlas ti. SAPS sport contributes towards the accrual of cultural capital within the South African Police Service, but with an exception of language culture, embodied cultural capital and objectified cultural capital. The study concludes that workplace sport has a positive influence on employees' performance and it contributes significantly towards the high level of employees' commitment to the organisation. Police officers should be given opportunities to be involved in sport and recreation activities within the working environment. SAPS should ensure that proper resources are provided and are made easily accessible to enable employees to participate in sport regardless of rank. All police personnel should be exposed to opportunities that are there because of participation in sport in the work environment. SAPS top management should give full support to all members who are interested in participating in sport because of the benefits that are accrued when taking part in sport. Proper sport structures should be put in place at all levels of SAPS sphere of operations so that there should not be communication breakdown in relation to sport issues. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences / DPhil / Unrestricted

Is increased access to social capital associated with a lower likelihood of poverty? Using data from a survey of nearly 10,000 residents of Iowa taken in 1994 and again in 2004, this study seeks to understand what types of social capital are associated with higher or lower likelihood of poverty at both the community and individual levels. Results suggest that higher bonding social capital at both levels is associated with a higher likelihood of poverty. The inverse of this relationship is found between bridging social capital and poverty. Although high bonding is generally an asset, when combined with low levels of bridging social capital, it is associated with significantly higher rural poverty rates in 1994 and 2004— exceeding the statewide average poverty rate of 15%. It is not clear, however, if high levels of bonding social capital cause high poverty rates by creating more insular networks in the context of low social bridging or if high bonding and low bridging are the direct result of high rural poverty.

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The goal of this thesis is to identify strategies that promote resident empowerment, involvement and cooperation in housing co-operatives that can be applied to mixed-income developments in order to bridge social capital. Numerous American policy makers, housing professionals and planners support the development of mixed-income housing to address the social and economic isolation of low-income, urban citizens living in public housing. Social capital, or social relationships developed from social networks, is an anticipated result of physically integrating individuals of varying income levels in the same housing environment. Despite efforts for integration, numerous studies have found that limited interaction occurs across class in many mixed-income housing developments, which hinders the development of social capital. Some literature points to empowerment, involvement and cooperation as methods of helping bridge social capital in mixed-income housing. Bridging social capital refers to building relationships among people who are demographically dissimilar to one another, such as in age, race or socioeconomic status. In an effort to learn how to bridge social capital through empowerment, involvement and cooperation, the housing co-operative model is analyzed. This research analyses six housing co-operative case studies. The data collected is from websites, published documents, newsletters and other literary sources provided by the co-ops and informal telephone conversations with co-op management staff. The findings indicate that housing management plays a vital role in promoting empowerment, involvement and cooperation. Recommendations include mixed-income housing management encouraging residents to develop and contribute personal skills to accomplish housing goals; housing management soliciting ideas from residents regarding projects or activities that they desire to be involved in; and housing management facilitating group tasks where residents can collectively achieve a goal such as creating a community garden or creating a mural that reflects various cultures or values of residents.

This thesis explores how four community gardens (Forest Gardens and Allotment Gardens) in Stockholm's multicultural suburbs enhance social connections among members and build community within the surrounding areas, through the lenses of social capital and third place, respectively. This case study aims to investigate participants’ perspectives on their relationships with other gardeners and visitors from the local neighborhood, utilizing semi-structured interviews and field/participant observations to collect qualitative data. The findings suggest that the shared ideologies among members in Forest Gardens, especially around the principles of permaculture, differentiate this typology from Allotment Gardens, in which the shared space aspect is more prevalent. Forest Gardens raise bonding social capital, stimulating deeper friendships and offering third places for the local communities, while Allotment Gardens promote bridging social capital, encouraging social learning through casual interactions with a diverse group of members, yet not so likely to include outsiders, functioning more as clubs. As a main contribution, this study highlights the importance of investigating the influence of members’ shared ideologies in the way social relationships are shaped in gardening communities, and not only examining gardening practices and spaces. On this basis, further research on the Pallet Collar Garden typology in Stockholm is recommended.

Naujosios technologijos, komunikacijos ir internetas jungia atokiausius pasaulio kampelius. Atstumams netenkant reikšmės, interneto vartotojai atranda naujas formas, kaip palaikyti ryšį. Viena jų – internetiniai socialiniai tinklai, vienijantys milijonus vartotojų visame pasaulyje. Vartotojai, kurių daugumą sudaro jaunimas, integruoja tokius tinklapius į savo kasdieninį gyvenimą. Jeigu keliais klaviatūros paspaudimais galima pasiekti septyniaženklį žmonių skaičių, tai jau turėtų būti įdomu mokslininkams ir tyrinėtojams. Greitas internetinių socialinių tinklų išplitimas Jungtinėse Amerikos Valstijose ir daugelyje kitų pasaulio šalių kelia tam tikrų klausimų ir Lietuvoje. Šio darbo tikslas – ištirti akademinio jaunimo socialinių ryšių kūrimą internetiniuose socialiniuose tinklapiuose. Tyrime bandoma išsiaiškinti jaunimo naudojimąsi internetiniais socialiniais tinklapiais, veiklą juose ir dalyvavimo motyvus bei jų santykį su socialiniu kapitalu. Hipotezės: 1. Moterys, jaunesnio amžiaus ir gyvenantys didesniuose miestuose jaunimas dažniau linkęs dalyvauti internetiniuose socialiniuose tinklapiuose ir juose turėti daugiau socialinių ryšių; 2. Jaunimas dalyvauja internetiniuose socialiniuose tinklapiuose siekdamas bendrauti, praleisti laisvalaikį ir palaikyti santykius su esamais draugais, o ne viešai save pristatyti ar susipažinti su naujais žmonėmis internetiniame pasaulyje; 3. Jaunimas, dalyvaudamas internetiniuose socialiniuose tinklapiuose, tikisi gauti naudingos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / New technology, communications and the Internet connects the most remote corners of the world. Distance loss of interest, internet users are discovering new ways to communicate. One of them - online social networks, connecting millions of users around the world. Users, most of whom are young people, integrating such sites in their daily lives. If a few keyboard clicks can be achieved millions of people, it should already be interesting to scientists and researchers. Rapid spread of online social networks in the United States and many other countries around the world raises some questions and in Lithuania. The aim of the work - to explore social connections creation of youth in the online social websites. The study attempts to clarify the use of youth online social websites, activities and motives for participation and their relationship to social capital. Hypotheses: 1. Women, younger and living in larger towns young people are more inclined to participate in online social sites and they have more social ties; 2. Young people participated in online social sites to communicate, spend free time and maintaining relationships with existing friends, but not publicly present himself or to meet new people in online world; 3. Young people, who participate in online social sites, expects to receive useful information about things that interest them or through weak ties to give a new perspective to one another. On the other hand, online social sites not makes a strong reciprocal... [to full text]

The contemporary era is witnessing a systemic transition in the Canadian science and research paradigm. The research world is shrinking rapidly in response to modern technological developments, commercial and regulatory integration, faster communications and transportation and proactive science, technology and innovation policy. It is increasingly challenging to make competitive progress in world-class innovation or to gain global leadership in science. Big-science is now proposed as one of the means to realize national innovation goals and international competitiveness. As a result, government support for large-scale innovation projects has increased multifold. This dissertation examines a range of hypotheses large-scale research projects enhance investigator exchanges and generate social capital that has significant downstream benefits, which would provide a reason to support big science beyond the instrumental goals of the projects themselves. Taking Genome Canada as an example, this dissertation examines the production and role of social capital generated through large-scale research projects to assess the evidence base for funding big science research. A group of 139 investigators who raised capital in the Genome Canada Applied Bioproducts and Crops (ABC) Competition in 2009 are examined in the context of their engagements and networks in 2000-2009 in four relational arenas, namely their area of expertise, institutional connections, research grants, and co-publications. The investigation reveals three main findings. First, large-scale innovation projects as delivered through Genome Canada, comply with the fundamentals of contemporary innovation network theory. Second, the ties amongst investigators generate social capital, which offers positional advantage and differential superior access to networked resources. Third, the social capital generated in actor relations has pronounced long term impacts on downstream research success. Inter-disciplinary and cross-institutional large-scale research projects that have strong elements of knowledge production and financial exchange are found to assist the federal government in advancing research and innovation objectives. The results of the current investigation provide a strong rationale for the integration of people, disciplines, and institutions under the umbrella of large-scale genomics and proteomics research, and possible lessons for other research fields.

The aim of this study is to investigate how women who came to Sweden as unaccompanied children experienced their entry into the Swedish labor market based on six qualitative interviews with woman in the age range of 24-32. The interviews were analyzed and interpreted using social capital as a theory. The results show that the informants turned to their friends consisting of other unaccompanied children, and that this network provided security and answers especially in the beginning of their stay in Sweden. Furthermore, our results show that bonding social capital played an important part as an enabler to search for contacts outside the network. All respondents report that it is difficult to get to know Swedes. The respondents did not attribute any significant importance to their social worker but they all emphasized that a significant key to enter the labour market is to learn the Swedish language.

The social web has emerged concurrent with a decline in Americans' community involvement and number of close friendships. Hundreds of millions of people connect online, but they appear to have fewer confidants and trust each other less. However, contrasting research finds that web users have better social integration and stronger relationships than their offline counterparts. This thesis resolves these contradictory views through a detailed examination of social network site (SNS) use and changes in relationships and individual well-being. The research is conducted at multiple levels looking at how different types of SNS use—direct interaction with others and more “passive consumption” of social news—influence the number and quality of individuals’ social ties and their aggregate social capital and well-being, including perceived social support, happiness, and physical health. The studies combine objective measures of SNS use (communication activity from the server logs of a popular social networking site) with self-reports of tie strength and well-being to accurately differentiate types of use with different partners. Longitudinal methods reveal how well-being changes over time with SNS use and are moderated by personal characteristics such as social communication skill and recent job loss.