Ethnicity, Social Capital and the Internet

This article explores web sites developed to express the interests and experiences of young Chinese people in Britain. Drawing on content analysis of site discussions and dialogues with site users, we argue these new communicative practices are best understood through a reworking of the social capit...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Parker, David, Song, Miri
Format: Article
Published: SAGE Publications 2006
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/741/
_version_ 1848790472173027328
author Parker, David
Song, Miri
author_facet Parker, David
Song, Miri
author_sort Parker, David
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This article explores web sites developed to express the interests and experiences of young Chinese people in Britain. Drawing on content analysis of site discussions and dialogues with site users, we argue these new communicative practices are best understood through a reworking of the social capital problematic. Firstly by recognising the irreducibility of Internet-mediated connections to the calculative instrumentalism underlying many applications of social capital theory. Secondly, by providing a more differentiated account of social capital. The interactions we explore comprise a specifically “second generation” form of social capital, cutting across the binary of bonding and bridging social capital. Thirdly judgement on the social capital consequences of Internet interactions must await a longer-term assessment of whether British Chinese institutions emerge to engage with the wider polity.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T18:13:09Z
format Article
id nottingham-741
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T18:13:09Z
publishDate 2006
publisher SAGE Publications
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-7412020-05-04T20:30:11Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/741/ Ethnicity, Social Capital and the Internet Parker, David Song, Miri This article explores web sites developed to express the interests and experiences of young Chinese people in Britain. Drawing on content analysis of site discussions and dialogues with site users, we argue these new communicative practices are best understood through a reworking of the social capital problematic. Firstly by recognising the irreducibility of Internet-mediated connections to the calculative instrumentalism underlying many applications of social capital theory. Secondly, by providing a more differentiated account of social capital. The interactions we explore comprise a specifically “second generation” form of social capital, cutting across the binary of bonding and bridging social capital. Thirdly judgement on the social capital consequences of Internet interactions must await a longer-term assessment of whether British Chinese institutions emerge to engage with the wider polity. SAGE Publications 2006 Article PeerReviewed Parker, David and Song, Miri (2006) Ethnicity, Social Capital and the Internet. Ethnicities, 6 (2). pp. 178-2002. Ethnicity Social Capital Internet
spellingShingle Ethnicity
Social Capital
Internet
Parker, David
Song, Miri
Ethnicity, Social Capital and the Internet
title Ethnicity, Social Capital and the Internet
title_full Ethnicity, Social Capital and the Internet
title_fullStr Ethnicity, Social Capital and the Internet
title_full_unstemmed Ethnicity, Social Capital and the Internet
title_short Ethnicity, Social Capital and the Internet
title_sort ethnicity, social capital and the internet
topic Ethnicity
Social Capital
Internet
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/741/