Social Capital

Sociology Article Review: “Social Capital Across the Life Course”

In the selected article, social capital is the framework of networks and resources that a person builds over his age by building social networks. The macro-level dependent variable is social capital in while the independent variable is the aging of people. The connection of the dependent variable to the macro-level is made by the social relationships people do overtime in return for which they get benefits and resources since these relationships are investments that people make over time. The macro-level connection of age is made by exploring the changes made as people age. Different age sets of people and changes in their social network dynamics are explored. On the micro-level, the dependent variable changes as it includes other factors like gender, closeness, density, and trust within social relationships and social capital. In contrast, independent variables become social capital in occupational settings.

The article links macro vs. micro connection in global and ‘big picture’ level first by finding literature studies based on Canadian Federal Election Study that entails massive data for diversity in occupational settings and resources that change over time and secondly, the study itself is conducted on data from Social Capital USA within which there are three societies (US, China, and Taiwan). This inclusivity on a huge scale provides a macro connection in a global context. The micro connection entails data from these countries relevant to gender, age, and daily connection at the workplace, which are individual factors that are measured individually.

The purpose of the article is to explore age-based inclination on social capital since it is known that people have their values and gains from the social relations they are involved in; however, in previous studies, it has not been known what role age plays in this context. The current study aims to investigate the gap by probing into the data from a US-based sample for a certain age bracket (22 to 65 years) for change in social capital and factors like gender, closeness in relations, trust, and density. It ought to be noted that there is diversity in the US population, which means different cultural inclusion is viewed, which highlights diversity as a factor as well, not present in the previous studies.

The study area of the article is Sociology. It is said that research conducted by sociologists has made its foundation on exploring the life cycles and the factors that change or remain constant with time in a person’s life. The life course patterns for social capital and how this works in separate life spheres, such as work, family, education, etc., have been the center of sociology research lately.

The research method is survey research since the data is obtained from surveys conducted among people aged 22 years to 65 years. The article implies that it uses a quantitative survey data collection method since the survey results were analyzed using statistical and quantitative measures such as curvilinear variation with squared and cubic age terms along with multiple regressions. Descriptive statistics are used for the tabulation of the variables. Moreover, the study is reliable and valid since the consistency of the measure is approved by the extent to which it measures the variables along with the results. The accuracy proves validity as the article mentions that data from sources was missing, so they were excluded for precision.

The type of data the article has is quantitative since the variables, age, gender, trust, contact daily, organizational membership, etc., have been presented in descriptive statistics tabulation. They have been evaluated based on mean and linear forms in connection with social capital. No qualitative data involved might reflect the sample population’s attitudes, opinions, or behaviors.

The crucial findings of the article that inspire new studies encompass the age variation and the degree to which it impacts gender in social capital. The previous studies have not explored these patterns across a person’s aging, specifically within the sample taken from the United States. The accumulation of the factors set as variables to be evaluated within the study has not been carried out in previous studies, which makes this study crucial for inspiring future studies. Three noteworthy findings are that social capital increases with age within the occupational networks but generally tends to be weaker with age. Secondly, the daily contacts become weaker as the person ages; third that gender plays an important part in the age-related inclination upon the social capital within or outside the occupational settings.

Gender role, age, and race have been included in the article as they are some of the key factors set as variables for the study.

The strong side of the article that I defend or support is age-related connection and their contributions to the social capitals. It is backed by quantitative analysis that is not merely subjected but based on real findings. It would also help in future studies to explore the resources and investment a person makes for his relationships that he considers as priorities. For example, when a person is in college or university, his friends are the priority relations while his wife and children become a priority when he gets married. The expanse of social investments changes with age and exclusion of relations over time-based on his own pre-set priorities.

The weak side of the article is the same that could be a basis of future studies, as mentioned in the above paragraph. It means that the priorities that the person sets on their own with age, such as college friends and then wife and children, change over time based on his own choices for priorities. It could be a reason that social capital becomes weak with age, which the hypothesis of this study has also corroborated. However, the element of personal choices and priorities of relationships has not been included in the study.

The article’s hypothesis was three: first, the relation between age and work-related social capital is curvilinear; second, the daily contact between age and daily relationship should be negative; and third that gender-wise age-based relations affect the social capital trajectories. The data meet the hypothesis well, and the results are valid and reliable, explained in the above sections.