SOCIAL CAPITAL AND THE ADDED SOCIAL VALUE THE ROLE OF WEAK LINKAGES IN THE PRODUCTION OF ADDED SOCIAL VALUE
SOCIAL CAPITAL AND THE ADDED SOCIAL VALUE THE ROLE OF WEAK LINKAGES IN THE PRODUCTION OF ADDED SOCIAL VALUE

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the multiplying mechanisms of social capital and, consequently, the effect of adding value, leading us towards considering the special type of capital that we called, by analogy, the added social value. The social capital as opposed to economic capital is growing and contracting and its multiplying effects based on specific mechanisms are not sufficiently reviewed in the economic theory. A new research direction has to be addressed within what we ought to call the moral eco-economy (related to the field of moral economy2) in order to facilitate the research of such multiplying mechanisms. We have revisited the opinions focused on the typology of capitals, noting the functions related to the bridging-type social relations within the process of generating added social value (proper to the type of social capital). Thus, we have examined this bridging-type function proper to weak ties, adding to the function of enhancing cognitive flexibility‖. We are confronted with a low flexibility of thinking and, consequently, an altering of ―cognitive flexibility‖ where such weak linkages do not exist. Growing ―social intelligence‖ (i.e. the capability of using social capital and, consequently, the diversity of social linkages) defines the added social value. The dynamic of social intelligence decisively depends on the variation of rather weak social linkages than the strong ones. The performance and the competitive value of firms and organizations of any kind depend rather on their capability of using weak linkages within a given social space (as in the case of EU’s) than on their capability of exploiting strong linkages. This is the main conclusion of our study.

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