Measuring the Social Capital of Brokerage Roles

Several researchers (Burt, 1995; Marsden, 1982, 1983; Granovetter, 1973; Homans, 1951, 1974) have stressed the importance of actors who occupy strategic positions in social networks to explain aspects of diffusion processes in social structures: If contacts between two parties are only possible through a third party, the latter can be regarded as being in control of resource flows. Such transmitting actors – often referred to as brokers – play a decisive role in the connectedness of social structures and hence, in determining the existing amounts of social capital available to the members of a network. Although attempts at classification and operationalization of brokerage roles have already been made (Gould and Fernandez, 1989), the integration into a broader theoretical framework – such as social exchange theory – is still to be achieved. Before we redefine to this purpose the Gould and Fernandez’ typology of broker roles by making use of Hummell and Sodeur’s (1987) census of triadic role patterns (see also Burt, 1990), several aspects of physical capital (such as accumulation, conversion and decay) will be analyzed with regard to their meaning in the different concepts of capital in social sciences (e.g. human capital, cultural capital, social capital). Finally, the validation of the proposed instrument for measuring social capital will be discussed against the back-ground of some empirical evidence.