Polytechnic and design, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2014.
Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.19279/TVZ.PD.2014-2-1-02
SOCIAL CAPITAL AND VIRTUALITY: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Josip Kolarec
; Zagreb University of Applied Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia
Milan Bajić
; Zagreb University of Applied Sciences , Zagreb, Croatia
Ida Popčević
; Zagreb University of Applied Sciences , Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This article is based on the series of three research studies conducted during 2013 at the Polytechnic of Zagreb. It explores the nature of relationships between reality and virtuality, and its multi-layered relationships with social capital, business opportunities, and voluntary online engagement. It shows that motivators for participation in social networking are very similar to motivators for participation in FLOSS movement. It concludes that social capital, as one of the main driving forces of humanity, is much more important than the used technology. However, it also warns that organizational structure and ethics within a community profoundly impact processes of creating and maintaining social capital, and that the concept of social capital is
dialectically intertwined with material gains. In this way, it provides a whole-rounded theoretical framework unavailable to solitary research efforts, warns about various methodological restrictions to found conclusions, and calls for further investigation of the notion of social capital at the fringes between reality and virtuality.
Keywords
social capital; virtual and real; motivation, networking
Hrčak ID:
194766
URI
Publication date:
13.5.2014.
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