3. SNS AS POLYVALENT TOOLS OF MULTILATERAL ASSOCIATION 10 3.1 Reinforcing existing offline relations 10 3.2 Conserving and revitalizing older relationships 11 3.3 Efficient use of social capital and management of many "weak ties" 12 3.4 Extended reach of highly trusted weak ties 14 3.5 Empowerment of informal network relations vis-à-vis formal institutional structures 16 3.6 Lowering the thresh...

The many challenges of distributed communication and the many challenges of intercultural collaboration have been researched and discussed at length in the literature. What is lacking is a combined approach that looks at both issues of distance and diversity in collaboration. We conducted research in a large, multinational technology company to better understand team configurational factors in ...

This essay is designed to call into question the current boomlet in policy and academic circles for social capital. Social capital has become an explanation for an array of domestic problems in the United States as well as for understanding issues of third world development. However, there is strong reason to ask whether the rise in interest in social capital is due to its demonstrated strength...

We establish an inverse relationship between family ties, generalized trust and political participation. The more individuals rely on the family as a provider of services, insurance, transfer of resources, the lower is civic engagement and political participation. The latter, together with trust, are part of what is known as social capital, therefore in this paper we contribute to the investiga...