Tim's Blog

To add to your wonderful post on the variety of research on social networking and youth, I have jsut submitted my doctoral thesis on youth in India and their social capital-online and off. Social Networking supplemets/complements youth social capital. In terms of comparative gains and losses in social capital online and off, Indian youth are able to generate new forms of social capital (in terms of bridges and bonds) online to supplement whatever is lost offline. Also they are able to maintain their existing stock of social capital offline through their online networking. Thus the Internet also complements their offline bridges and bonds.

Hope this is something of interest to researchers working outside the West because Social Capital Theory till now has been predominantly a Western research domain.

Thanks Tim!