Knowledge and learning in online networks in development: a social-capital perspective

Abstract

The authors examine whether the concept of social capital can facilitate our understanding of online networks in development. Much of the knowledge generation and social learning in development takes place in networks, which increasingly operate online. Although these networks are assumed to be a positive force in development, there are many unknown factors, partly because they are in their infancy. The concept of social capital has traditionally been applied to examine the functioning of groups and societies. More recently, it has also been applied to development and to online networks outside development. Three non-development approaches to examining social capital in online networks and communities are reviewed in the article. Elements of these approaches, combined with development-related aspects, are used to produce a framework to facilitate the analysis of social capital in online networks in a development context.

Notes

1. Affordances are defined as ‘an action possibility available in the environment to an individual, independent of the individual's ability to perceive this possibility’ (McGrenere and Ho 2000).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Cummings

Sarah Cummings is an Information Manager at the Information and Library Services of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam, a member of the Advisory Council of Hivos, and Co-Editor in Chief of the peer-reviewed online journal Knowledge Management for Development Journal (www.km4dev.org/journal). She has been involved in coordinating the ‘Smart toolkit for evaluating information products and services’, a joint initiative of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), and KIT.

Richard Heeks

Richard Heeks is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Development Policy Management of the University of Manchester. He has undertaken research on a broad range of topics related to information and development. His most recent book is Implementing and Managing Egovernment: an International Text (Sage, 2005).

Marleen Huysman

Marleen Huysman is Associate Professor of Knowledge and Organisation at the Free University of Amsterdam, where her work focuses on organisational learning, knowledge management, communities of practice, online communities, and regional communities. With Volker Wulf, she edited Social Capital and IT (MIT Press, 2004) and organised the first International Conference on Communities and Technologies (C&T 2003) in Amsterdam.