The renaissance of social capital in a Danish working life context

Abstract

In the latter years ‘social capital’ has been articulated as a positive character attributed some organizations. It has been well-documented that these organizations, characterized by high social capital, are able to bridge the seemingly odd couple of productivity and quality at one side, and well-being and a better psychosocial work environment at the other side. This apparent relationship has increased attention to how it is possible to develop social capital at both private and public work places. However, even though social capital has been identified as a positive attribute, it still remain unclear what social capital really is in a working context. It is still unclear what companies actually do well, when they are able to increase social capital. The article analyzes how social capital are sometimes being ’black boxed’. It is argued that social capital in this process partly undergoes an ontological shift and to some degree becomes a managerial concept which is ‘projectified’ . On the one hand this process creates a platform for activities and episodes in which for instance relations, coordination and social capital is strengthened. But it also creates the foundation for activities that might risk countering the intention of building social capital. The article explores the renaissance of social capital in a Danish work place context. By means of a strand of neoinstitutional theory, namely translation theory, the travel of ‘social capital’ as a concept, an idea, a management concept, is explored. The analysis is conducted at three levels. First a brief analysis of how the concept was ‘reinvented’, reinterpreted and thus translated by researchers in a Danish working life context. In this process they explored and documented a possible bridge between productivity, quality at one side and psychosocial work environment at the other side. Secondly by presenting the analytical results of a project in which a mapping of social capital-initiatives in Denmark was conducted. By a snowball research method, descriptions of projects, activities and (to the degree that it was possible) evaluations, the initiatives was systematically analyzed. The results are presented as part of the ana- lysis on how actors negotiate and attribute meaning to the concept of social capital and thus participate in the process of negotiation, meaning attribution and translation of social capital. Thirdly the article presents episodes in a narrative form. These are partly – but not only – based on six case studies performed as part of the above men- tioned mapping of social capital initiatives in Denmark. These episodes and narratives illustrate how processes of translation fundamentally influence the outcome of either sense making or sense breaking processes when work places take up social capital in specific initiatives in the specific working life context. The article suggests that there is a need for greater attention towards the local processes of translation while they are vital for the outcome of social capital initiatives.