Theorising engagement

Supervisor #2 has come up with an idea that nicely relates to the way I am thinking about relationships. He suggests that rather than using Actor-Network theory that I consider social network theory. He's come across this paper by Nahapiet & Ghoshal that describes how the structures of social networks can improve social capital and the structure of those networks can also lead to increased intellectual capital {Nahapiet, 1998}. There are three dimensions to creating intellectual capital through social capital:

1. structural dimension: who is connected to whom, i.e. network ties, network configuration, appropriable organisation
2. cognitive dimension: to what extent are there shared concepts between people, i.e. shared codes & language, shared narratives
3. relational dimension: what are the established norms of how people behave, i.e trust, norms, obligations, identification.

Each dimension contributes in different combinations. The combinations and exchange of intellectual capital are:

• access to parties for combining/exchanging intellectual capital
• anticipation of value through combining /exchanging intellectual capital
• motivation to combine /exchange intellectual capital
• combination capability

These combinations and exchanges create new intellectual capital.

Sounds cool!

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Nahapiet, J. and Ghoshal, S. (1998) 'SOCIAL CAPITAL, INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL, AND THE ORGANIZATIONAL ADVANTAGE', Academy of Management Review, 23 (2), pp. 242-266. 842