Browsing by Subject "Social capital"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Challenges to food and nutrition security among low-income communities
    (2021-10) Karnik, Harshada
    This dissertation highlights challenges to food and nutrition security, and the practices households adopt to overcome these challenges. In the first essay, I use primary data to study social capital and food security through the case study of Somali refugee households in the Midwest. In the second essay, I evaluate the impact of two interventions designed to increase nutrition awareness -- succinct nutrition labels displayed on the shelf and nutrition education workshops -- on food purchase choices of shoppers in grocery stores in rural Kansas. In the third essay, I study how the store format choices of households receiving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits change over the benefit month and how additional benefits received are distributed across store formats and over the benefit month using SNAP administrative data from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro area.I find that non-monetary constraints add to the costs households incur and that reducing these costs can improve food and nutrition security. In the Somali-American community, social capital enhances food security possibly by reducing obstacles that would have otherwise increased cost. Among rural residents reducing the cost of information empowers them to make healthier choices. SNAP recipient households tend to redeem more benefits at grocery stores indicating their preference for grocery stores, yet they make a small number of redemptions at convenience stores every month suggesting their need to rely on convenience stores. The findings of this doctoral research suggest that cash transfer programs are necessary to help families overcome financial constraints, but creative solutions could help to overcome non-monetary challenges and reduce costs to access sufficient and nutritious foods and consequently promote more equitable health outcomes for all.
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    Community and prejudice: relationships among social capital, intergroup contact, group categorization, and racial attitudes.
    (2011-06) Fisher, Emily Lynn
    Interpersonal contact with members of different groups can reduce prejudice and encourage people to see members of other social categories as part of their own ingroups. This research examines a quality of the social environment that might facilitate this type of contact: social capital, or the norms about trust and reciprocity within a social network. People who believe that their communities have high levels of social capital may be likely to have positive contact with members of other social groups. This positive contact could then lead these people to focus on their shared identity as members of that community. Both of these processes could lead to improved attitudes about other groups. Two studies are conducted to test these relationships. Study 1 surveys students about their perceptions of social capital levels within their university community as well as their experiences with students of other races and their attitudes about racial groups. This study provides cross-sectional evidence that social capital relates to contact quality, social categorization and racial attitudes. Study 2 extends this theory by investigating how these variables affect each other over time. Panel data support the claim that social capital is an antecedent of intergroup contact and categorization. These two studies provide novel evidence that qualities of the social environment can influence individual-level experiences and intergroup attitudes.
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    An Examination of how participation in a cohort-based leadership development program for high-potential employees contributes to the development of leaders at a Major Professional services firm in the United States
    (2014-12) Bialek, Tani K. Keenlyne
    This case study examined the leadership development experience of employees who participated in a high-potential leadership development program within a major professional services firm in the Midwest United States. Leadership development is a top priority for many organizations and a critical driver of success. Effective leadership is also recognized as a source of sustainable competitive advantage and greater market value. Despite these compelling factors, the need for developing leaders has been listed among organizations' top concerns for more than a decade. These factors create challenges in developing the talent needed for organizations to remain competitive. As these challenges converge they intensify the need for well-planned, consistent, and rigorous development of high-potential talent. These needs support the call for a greater understanding of how participation in a cohort-based leadership development program contributes to high-potentials' development as leaders.
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    Impact of co-authorship strategies on research productivity: a social-network analysis of publications in Russian cardiology.
    (2011-05) Kuzhabekova, Aliya
    This study explores how the choice of a co-authorship strategy determines individual research productivity measured in terms of quantity of publications. The exploration is conducted in the specific context of Russian cardiologic research.The concept of social capital is used to explain the relationship between co-authorship and increased research productivity. The methodology for theoretical classification and empirical determination of co-authorship strategies is based on theoretical and methodological foundations borrowed from social network analysis. Two competing theories explaining the relationship between social network structure and social capital by Coleman (1988) and Burt (1992) are used to classify and to determine empirically co-authorship strategies. The study is conducted in three phases. First, social network analysis is used to determine the co-authorship strategy of each researcher in the study. Second, analysis of variance is applied to determine the effect of co-authorship strategies on individual research productivity. Third, sensitivity analysis is conducted to determine whether the results hold under different assumptions. The results indicate that co-authorship strategies have differential effects on research productivity and that the bridging strategy, in which a researcher serves as a broker between other researchers, is the most productive in Russian cardiologic research. This finding is consistent with the results of a prior study on the effect of co-authorship strategies on individual research productivity in the US research in higher education (Rumsey-Wairepo, 2006). The study supports Burt's (1992) theory of structural holes in explaining how social network structure creates social capital.
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    The influence of high school extracurricular Coaches and activities advisors on sudent social capital
    (2014-03) Ward, John M.
    Extracurricular activities have long been an integral part of the K-12 educational experience in the United States, yet little is known about how the athletic coaches and activity advisors of these activities contribute to student development. There is a widely held belief that coaches are the prime contributors to the development of self-discipline, character and leadership skills among student participants. Social capital theory suggests that athletic coaches or activity advisors might be valuable contributors to student development by reinforcing positive social norms, fostering trust, and opening access to other information sources that would otherwise not exist. This study attempts to provide information regarding that claim. It focuses on students who have participated in varsity athletics, fine arts or school sponsored clubs in high school. It examines whether athletic coaches and advisors in these activities develop social capital in students. The study is a multiple case study replication design. It consists of an exploratory case study design of 24 separate cases. Twelve of these cases represent the impressions of student participants; twelve represent the impressions of coaches and activities advisors.
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    Local Leaders' Perceptions of Social Capital and Community Development
    (2011) Ferguson, Lynda; Hyman, Randy; Ryan, Cindy
    Local Leaders' Perceptions of Social Capital and Community Development is a study of social capital as described by five local leaders, based on their experiences with community development. In contrast to previous local applications of universal and collective social capital measures, the current project was a qualitative study of individual social capital. It looked to critical reviews of social capital theory, and decolonizing methodologies, for the creation of questions used in face-to-face interviews with individuals that lasted one to two hours long. From these interviews, qualitative descriptions of social relationships were gathered and analyzed. This revealed different types of ties between individuals and small groups, and the ties, motivations of, and benefits to, local leaders. It also presented an idiosyncratic picture of local community development. Of particular note were the experiences of leaders as advocates and agents, involved in building relationships cross-sector, cross-cultural, and cross-construct, in multi-dimensional and bounded contexts. This study may serve as a reference for those interested in better understanding the impact of social ties, in diverse leadership and for local, multidimensional sustainable community building efforts.
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    Potential social capital and psychological distress for intermarried persons
    (2013-07) Jang, Juyoung
    Based on Bourdieu's social capital theory, two studies were conducted to investigate potential social capital and psychological distress for intermarried persons. Study 1 investigated potential social capital for intermarried persons. Study 2 examined the association between potential social capital and psychological distress. The two studies utilized the same data - the 2001 IHIS - including 11,483 intramarried persons and 1,392 intermarried persons. Generalized linear models were used for analyses. Study 1 found that interracial married persons were likely to have less potential social capital than intramarried persons. Study 2 found that the association between potential social capital and psychological distress was stronger for interracial married persons and intermarried persons with non-White spouse than for intramarried persons. The association was weaker for intermarried persons with White spouse than for intramarried persons. The study findings partially supported the previous literature raising a concern about a lack of potential social capital and consequent psychological distress for intermarried persons. The results supported the context-dependent nature of social capital posited by Bourdieu (1986).
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    Social capital networking and immigrant populations in rural Minnesota : a qualitative research project.
    (2011-02) Laeger-Hagemeister, Mary A.
    Combining social capital theory and immigration history and theory a qualitative study was conducted using a variation of Critical Incident Technique to identify the motivations of individuals in rural communities who championed community responses to the influx of large immigrant populations. Twenty-eight individuals identified as key champions in two rural communities were interviewed to determine, how they as formal or non-formal leaders sanctioned, promoted, supported, and encouraged others to engage in successful strategies to ease successful transitions of new immigrants into their communities. Interviews determined what individual champions did, how they did it, and their sources of motivation. Data analysis revealed three themes: 1) Fear of change in the community; 2) Collaboration as the road to success; 3) Communities and schools recognizing immigrants as key to continued growth. Analysis also revealed two key components influencing leaders to intentionally work with immigrant integration: 1) An understanding of their own immigration history; and 2) a previous experience of caring for or being "the other." These factors helped create the linking networks or weak ties between the host community and the immigrant communities. The findings and recommendations provide insight and recommendations for weaving diversity into community development and leadership programs that business leaders and other stakeholders in rural communities can use. Community leadership programs must be intentional in providing cross-cultural education for participants. The curriculum must include participants deliberating, getting to know their own cultural values, cultural communication patterns, personal and national immigration history, and diverse ways of looking at the world. In addition community leaders need opportunities to learn what it means to be the outsider.
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    Social Capital, Education, and Earning: The Important Role of Peer Relationships for Marginalized Tanzanian Youth
    (2016-05) Pellowski Wiger, Nancy
    Given low secondary school completion rates, high rates of youth unemployment, and the importance of relationships in Tanzania, there is a need for nuanced and critical analyses examining the link between social capital, education, and earning for young people. This study drew on theories of social capital from a critical perspective (Bourdieu, 1986, Stanton-Salazar, 1997, 2011) to examine how Tanzanian youth were able, and at times unable, to draw on and utilize their social capital to succeed in education and earning, particularly when faced with gender, economic, and social class inequalities. Drawing on longitudinal survey and interview data over four years from youth attending two boarding secondary schools implementing a youth entrepreneurship training program in Tanzania, this study examined how youth drew on peers and adults, at school and at home, to further their learning and earning goals. Findings showed that, while positive adult relationships furthered earning and learning outcomes, relationships with peers were particularly important for youth, in contrast to other studies focusing solely on youths’ relationships with adults (see, for example, Bajaj, 2009; Stanton-Salazar & Dornbusch, 1995). Females and orphans drew on peer support to supplement a lack of adult support for learning and earning, particularly when faced with challenges such as gender discrimination at home or in the workplace. In addition, older youth (ages 17-20) and youth who financially contributed to their households reported drawing on peers, especially when they lacked adult support for education. Non-orphans, younger youth (ages 11-16), and youth financially responsible for others drew on increased peer support at home over time, particularly to supplement a lack of adult support for earning. Male youth also drew on increased peer support at school for learning, and increased peer support at school and at home for earning. When faced with inequalities in school and the labor market, such as high costs associated with schooling, gender discrimination, unequal land rights, and sexual exploitation while earning, youth drew on peer support to supplement a lack of adult support for education and earning. These findings identify new possibilities for social capital research and have important implications for education and youth livelihood programming as arenas to build social capital for youth from marginalized backgrounds.