Denmark USD COER - Partnership and Networking

3. The artefact

3.1. Activities

Activity 1: Analyse the network of your own professional context. Include considerations about the concepts mentioned below. Include only the aspects that you consider relevant for the context you describe. When finished you should add a picture of your network drawing in the individual or group wiki. 

Number of ties: Considers the number of ties, both actual and potential ties, that can be generated should be considered. This might be helpful in terms of considering other ways of structuring the network. 

Directedness: Marks the way that different resources flow between the entities in the network. Helps you visualise the different flows in the network. Arrows can be used to exemplify this.

Reciprocity: Describes a way to mark identical flows between entities in the network. This can be marked by using different colors for the exchanges between positions in the network.

Transivity: Describes the connectedness of positive or negative flows that might be transferred to other ties in the network (e.g. negative exchanges between prison guards and prisoners might be transferred to other parts of the network).

Density: Describes the degree of connectedness. The more the actual number of ties the greater is the density of the network.

Strength of the ties: Describes the number of resources that flow between the positions in the network. A high amount of resources exchanged represent a strong tie and few sporadic exchanges represent a weak tie. This can be marked by thin and thick lines between positions.

Bridges: Bridges are places in the network where one point connects several other points. This means that bridges connect parts on the network that are otherwise not connected (e.g. on the simple network drawing it is clear that the project leader links many otherwise not connected parts of the network, so without her they are actually different/separate networks).

Brokerage: Brokers are the positions in the network that are the only entity that makes sure that resources flow from one part to another part of the network. So some networks become highly dependent on some positions for the flow of resources in the network. 

Centrality: Can, for instance, be understood as the number of ties between which a position falls. Some points in a network might be mediating a lot of the resources, so the centrality of that network would be high. (e.g. the project leader in the example provided exemplifies such a position and there is a very high amount of centrality in that network which makes it vulnerable)  

Equivalence: This term describes the amount of equivalence between different positions in the network. When two positions are in the same relation to each other they are considered equivalent. 

Resources exchanged: Considers the different resources exchanged in the network. Resources might be both the flow of information, money, goods, services, influence, emotions, deference, prestige or just any force or resource that binds the different actors to each other. 

Social Capital: The concept of social capital encompass various aspects that has been debated in many academic and political circles. In regard to applicability and relevance, the two aspects below has been chosen for the learner. 

Strong and weak ties: Concept developed by Granovetter where strong ties are typically found in ethnic minority groups or religious groups. Weak ties are more random and sporadic. Strong ties in some part of a network might counteract the collaboration in the network and have excluding effects. In some situations such as when seeking a job, weak ties might be very beneficial and in family relations, strong ties might be more important. 

Bridging and Bonding: Putnam uses these concepts to describe different types of network relations. Bonding represents connections or networking within homogeneous groups and Bridging represents networking between more heterogeneous groups. Putnam considers the last one as essential for the social cohesion and solidarity in a community/society. Putnam empahsises that trust is an important aspect of bridging. 

Activity 2: Analyse and discuss the partnerships in relation to aspects of social and human capital in your own professional context. For instance, you could consider whether new or existing partnerships could promote the cultural capital of relevant actors by reflecting on the relation between social and human capital and the possibilities for establishing or rethinking the existing actor's social capital. In asset-based approaches the goals of established cultural capital should preferably be formulated by the individual actors themselves, but could also be related to project aims or goals.     

Description of human and social capital: An essential point for Coleman is the connections between social and human capital. In a simplified way, social capital can be understood for instance as an asset in the social relations/network of persons and projects. In that regard, it can become a valuable resource that can be used to achieve goals. Human capital can be understood, as for instance, in education, knowledge about arts, behavioural norms etc. In relation to these two concepts, Coleman emphasises that cultural capital e.g. education is not worth much if the necessary social capital is not available e.g. parents investing time in helping their children with homework.