Social Capital

Context:

The task of working collaboratively on the wiki requires some form of social relationship – however weak - between participants so that they can co-operate and work together smoothly and effectively: ‘Social capital greases the wheels that allow communities to advance smoothly.’
Social capital is a measure of the strengths of the relationships and cohesion between people in a group or network. 

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Social capital relates to the connections between individuals, rather than any properties of the individuals themselves - in this way, it differs from physical or financial capital which measures the amount of a particular stock.  This concept has been adopted by many organisations (including the World Bank), which believe it is just as important to the performance, prosperity and viability of communities as other types of asset.  Social capital accumulates from positive qualities such as tolerance, a sense of belonging, personal support and encouragement, clear goals and shared purpose, trust and reciprocity; however, it can be destroyed by factors such as prejudice, apathy, conflicting objectives, and suspicion.

Social capital is relevant to the project for several reasons: it is often argued that social relationships shape the way people acquire knowledge and apply this knowledge to their work, and that the creation of knowledge is fundamentally a social process; social capital permits a set of implicit constraints and permissions for participating in the project – these norms go hand-in-hand with the pattern Governance and are no less important than formal methods of regulation; high levels of social capital encourage people to give their best to the project; good relationships allow people to test their personal views openly without worrying too much how they will be perceived by others in the group.  Some theories of social capital hold that individuals or groups with high levels of social capital will perform better than those which lack this resource, but strong social capital can have a downside if it is used to create cliques within a group or to reinforce ‘turf wars’ between groups and institutions.
 
 
The Internet is changing the way in which traditional social networks operate and re-shaping affiliations within these networks.  These changes are neither inherently good nor bad, but they have a significant effect on membership bodies such as the RIBA.  Traditional models engage people through face-to-face relationships; these models perform well in terms of decision-making, active commitment and message, but often have difficulty in engaging large numbers of people at a grass roots level.  On-line networks bring together many more individuals than traditional models, but whilst connections in these groups are denser they are relatively weak; such networks are good at disseminating information to members, but their loose structure means that their processes and outputs can be less effective in terms of direction, activism and voice. 

The characteristics of knowledge in these different types of network also vary: close, personal ties in real space communities often produce types of knowledge which are exclusive to individuals or the group, whereas knowledge in an on-line community more closely resembles a public good.  These differences are reflected in the RIBA’s plans to create a series of Knowledge Communities, which will combine meetings between a small group of experts and wider collaboration with members and the public through electronic forums – see also the pattern Knowledge Management. 

In a paper called ‘The Strength of Weak Ties’, the sociologist, Mark Granovetter, demonstrated that in many situations people are better able to find innovative ideas and new information using  contacts outside their normal social circle.  He explained this result using the theory that these groups tend to reinforce their members’ opinions and share common information, whereas weak ties allow people to reach a more diverse population.  The small world phenomenon described in the Preface of this report also relies on a mix of strong and weak ties – see opposite page.

Therefore:

Understanding the informal processes which support this pattern is of equal importance to the more formal processes provided by other patterns, such as Governance and Executive Support – the accumulation of social capital is crucial to passing ownership of the wiki to users.

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The social capital of the wiki should accumulate over time as a result of positive interactions between its users; however, social capital can also be fostered and protected by strong leadership which unites participants around a common purpose – see the related pattern Champions.