“Why social capital matters so much?”

Moderator:

Eoin McCoy, Member of the Board, ASPIRE (Moderator)

Speaker:

Prof. Piotr Sztompka, Professor of Sociology, Jagiellonian University

The aim of this plenary session is to provide the audience with an understanding of the importance of the networks of social relations, bonds and ties both within a group (community, firm, corporation) i.e. “bonding social capital”, and those which stretch across group borders (to other groups, communities, firms, corporations) i.e. “bridging capital”.

The session will specify the functions (benefits) of robust social capital both for individual employees (i.e. “personal social”), and for the collective (i.e. “collective social capital”).

To illustrate this, Prof. Sztompka will draw on a fascinating sociological study of the Orthodox Jewish community of diamond dealers in Manhattan, carried out by James Coleman in the 1970s, which for the first time discovered the importance of social capital for cutting external, transaction costs and raising the competitive advantage of such a
community.