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== '''[[History of economic thought]]''' ==
== '''[[The Social Capital Foundation]]''' ==
''by  [[User:Nick Gardner|Nick Gardner]], [[User:João Prado Ribeiro Campos|João Prado Ribeiro Campos]] and [[User:Richard Jensen|Richard Jensen]]
''by  [[User:Koen Demol|Koen Demol]]
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----


Modern economic thought is generally considered to have originated in the late eighteenth century with the work of [[David Hume]] and [[Adam Smith]], and the foundation of classical economics. (Earlier approaches are described in the article on the [[History of pre-classical economic thought]].) The  nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw major developments in the methodology and scope of economic theory.


Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century economists applied deductive reasoning to axioms considered to be self-evident and to simplifying assumptions which were thought to capture the essential features of economic activity.  That methodology yielded concepts such as [[elasticity]] and [[utility]], tools such as marginal analysis, and theorems such as the law of [[comparative advantage]]. An extension of the relationships governing transactions between consumers and producers was considered to provide all that was necessary to understand the behaviour of the national economy.  
'''The Social Capital Foundation''' (TSCF) is a non-profit, [[non-governmental organization]] (NGO) that pursues the promotion of [[social capital]] and [[social cohesion]]. Created in late 2002 by Dr [[Patrick Hunout]], it is based in [[Brussels]]. TSCF is international and focuses particularly on the current developments in the industrial countries. The profiles of its members are extremely diverse. Funded with membership, conference and expertise fees, it is an independent [[operating foundation]]. It is a not a [[grant-making foundation]].  


The development, in the later 20th century, of systems of [[economic statistics]] enabled economists to use inductive reasoning to test theoretical findings against observed economic behaviour and to develop new theories. By that time, the concept had emerged of the national economy as an open interactive system, and analysis of that concept provided explanations of [[recession|recessions]], [[unemployment]] and [[inflation]] that were not previously available. The application of empirical data and inductive reasoning enabled those theories to be refined and led to the development of forecasting models that could be used as tools of economic management.
Social capital is a key concept in [[political science]], [[sociology]], [[social psychology]], [[economics]], and organizational behavior. It has been theorized about by a long list of scholars, from Emile Durkheim to Ferdinand Tönnies, Pierre Bourdieu, Robert Putnam, Robert Bellah, Francis Fukuyama, Patrick Hunout and others. (See the entry on [[social capital]] for more detailed discussion).


The late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen further theoretical and empirical refinements and significant advances in the techniques of economic management.
== The Foundation's approach to social capital ==


===Overview: categories of economic thought===
TSCF's approach to "social capital" is distinct from other, more socio-economic approaches in which the term "capital" approaches some of its conventional economic meanings. TSCF promotes social capital defined as a set of mental dispositions and attitudes favoring cooperative behaviors within society.  
Historians categorise economic thought into “periods” and “schools” and tend to attribute each  innovation to one individual.  This categorization is helpful for the purpose of exposition, although the reality has been a story of interwoven intellectual threads in which advances attributed to particular individuals or schools have often prompted the work of others.  For example, the quantity theory of money, which achieved prominence in the twentieth century and is associated with Milton Friedman, was first formulated at least three centuries earlier.  Many of those threads that have  permeated  the categories referred to as "Classical economics" and "Neoclassical economics"—such as the concept of value and the nature of economic growth—had an earlier origin in "Pre-classical economics" (see [[History of pre-classical economic thought]]). "Classical" in economics denotes the adoption in the late eighteenth century of an approach that was inspired by the enlightenment and the methodology of the physical sciences, and had abandoned previous examinations of economics in terms of ethics, religion and politics.  Preoccupation with those threads was overshadowed in the twentieth century by the responses of [[Keynesianism]] and [[monetarism]] to the problems of unemployment and [[inflation]], but the development of neoclassical economics started before that time and has continued thereafter.  (The boundary between the "classical" and "neoclassical" categories is marked mainly by the  rejuvenation of the value thread by the concept of [[utility]] and the associated explanation of price in terms of "[[supply and demand]]".)  The introduction of new tools of exploration has since led to the vigorous development of that and other threads, and an expansion in the scope of economics into many new directions.


''[[History of economic thought|.... (read more)]]''
The first assumption on which this definition is based is that social capital must not be mixed up with its manifestations.
 
Thus, social capital does not consist primarily in the possession of social networks, but in a disposition to generate, maintain and develop congenial relationships. It is not good neighborhood, but the openness to pacific coexistence and reciprocity based on a concept of belonging. It does not consist in running negotiations, but in the shared compromise-readiness and sense of the common good that make them succeed. It is not solely observable trust, but the predictability and the good faith necessary to produce it. It is not reductible to factual civic engagement, but resides in the sense of community that gives you lust to get involved in public life. All these downstream manifestations cannot be fully and consistently explained without reference to the upstream mental patterns that make them possible, or not.
 
The second assumption is that this disposition is collectivistic. It is not my individual capacity to build networks that is the most important for creating social capital but a collective, shared and reciprocal disposition to welcome, create and maintain social connections - without which my individual efforts to create such connections may well remain vain. 
 
In that sense, The Social Capital Foundation's definition of social capital can be regarded as a semantic equivalent to the spirit of community. TSCF's approach is close to the one developed by [[Amitai Etzioni]] and the [[Communitarian Network]], although the concerns raised by the erosion of the community trace back to diverse figures in early modern sociology such as [[Ferdinand Tönnies]], [[Georg Simmel]], [[Emile Durkheim]] or the [[Chicago School of Sociology]], while [[European ethnology]], [[culturalism]] and [[jungism]] also insisted on the existence of a common soul.
 
TSCF promotes social capital through socio-economic research, publications, and events. The Foundation sets up international conferences on a regular basis. While research and knowledge add verified facts to the debate, social interaction contributes to further dissemination and awareness around the Foundation's approach.
 
== Hunout and the tripartite model of societal change ==
 
[[Patrick Hunout]], a Franco-Belgian researcher and policymaker, created in 1999 The International Scope Review and in 2002 The Social Capital Foundation. His theoretical filiation is both in the sociology of [[Emile Durkheim]] and [[Ferdinand Tönnies]] and in the more recent contribution of [[social psychology]] and [[cognitive psychology]] research. A former stage of his work had shown that judicial decisionmaking is only possible to the extent where judges use, beyond the formal legal provisions, impersonal and universal values as decision principles -to name these, he coined the term of "global axiological space" (1985, 1990).
 
''[[The Social Capital Foundation|.... (read more)]]''


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Revision as of 19:40, 16 March 2012

The Social Capital Foundation

by Koen Demol


The Social Capital Foundation (TSCF) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) that pursues the promotion of social capital and social cohesion. Created in late 2002 by Dr Patrick Hunout, it is based in Brussels. TSCF is international and focuses particularly on the current developments in the industrial countries. The profiles of its members are extremely diverse. Funded with membership, conference and expertise fees, it is an independent operating foundation. It is a not a grant-making foundation.

Social capital is a key concept in political science, sociology, social psychology, economics, and organizational behavior. It has been theorized about by a long list of scholars, from Emile Durkheim to Ferdinand Tönnies, Pierre Bourdieu, Robert Putnam, Robert Bellah, Francis Fukuyama, Patrick Hunout and others. (See the entry on social capital for more detailed discussion).

The Foundation's approach to social capital

TSCF's approach to "social capital" is distinct from other, more socio-economic approaches in which the term "capital" approaches some of its conventional economic meanings. TSCF promotes social capital defined as a set of mental dispositions and attitudes favoring cooperative behaviors within society.

The first assumption on which this definition is based is that social capital must not be mixed up with its manifestations.

Thus, social capital does not consist primarily in the possession of social networks, but in a disposition to generate, maintain and develop congenial relationships. It is not good neighborhood, but the openness to pacific coexistence and reciprocity based on a concept of belonging. It does not consist in running negotiations, but in the shared compromise-readiness and sense of the common good that make them succeed. It is not solely observable trust, but the predictability and the good faith necessary to produce it. It is not reductible to factual civic engagement, but resides in the sense of community that gives you lust to get involved in public life. All these downstream manifestations cannot be fully and consistently explained without reference to the upstream mental patterns that make them possible, or not.

The second assumption is that this disposition is collectivistic. It is not my individual capacity to build networks that is the most important for creating social capital but a collective, shared and reciprocal disposition to welcome, create and maintain social connections - without which my individual efforts to create such connections may well remain vain.

In that sense, The Social Capital Foundation's definition of social capital can be regarded as a semantic equivalent to the spirit of community. TSCF's approach is close to the one developed by Amitai Etzioni and the Communitarian Network, although the concerns raised by the erosion of the community trace back to diverse figures in early modern sociology such as Ferdinand Tönnies, Georg Simmel, Emile Durkheim or the Chicago School of Sociology, while European ethnology, culturalism and jungism also insisted on the existence of a common soul.

TSCF promotes social capital through socio-economic research, publications, and events. The Foundation sets up international conferences on a regular basis. While research and knowledge add verified facts to the debate, social interaction contributes to further dissemination and awareness around the Foundation's approach.

Hunout and the tripartite model of societal change

Patrick Hunout, a Franco-Belgian researcher and policymaker, created in 1999 The International Scope Review and in 2002 The Social Capital Foundation. His theoretical filiation is both in the sociology of Emile Durkheim and Ferdinand Tönnies and in the more recent contribution of social psychology and cognitive psychology research. A former stage of his work had shown that judicial decisionmaking is only possible to the extent where judges use, beyond the formal legal provisions, impersonal and universal values as decision principles -to name these, he coined the term of "global axiological space" (1985, 1990).

.... (read more)

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