Is Social Capital and Social Networks Useless?

麦克芬森等(McPherson et al.,2001)关于社会网络“同质性”的综述引发了学术界对于社会网同质性特征的深入思考,最终导致穆尔(Mouw,2003,2006)颠覆性的批评。穆尔提出社会网具有同质性,社会网和社会资本的使用具有内生性；社会资本和社会网在求职的作用上可能是无效的。本研究重新审视了社会网的同质性和内生性。本文在第二部分从发生学的角度解释了穆尔等学者观察到的同质性的来源;第三部分报告了笔者的实证研究发现:在社会关系发挥正功能的情况下,网络使用过程中显现的是穆尔提及的拥有好的关系的行动者倾向于使用关系的内生性类型；而在社会关系发挥负功能的情况下,网络使用过程中显现的是行动者倾向于不使用关系的内生性类型。因此穆尔提出的内生性不具有普适性。最后,本文基于以上的实证和理论研究,指出穆尔建立在对传统社会资本和社会网同质性和内生性基础上的批评都是不成立的。

The review on the social network of “homogeneity” published by M. McPherson et al. has raised deep academic thinking，leading to criticism given by T. Mouw，who proposed that social networks have the characteristics of homogeneity and endogeneity，and social networks may be un-significant in job search. This study reexamined the homogeneity and endogeneity of social networks. The article explains from the source of homogeneity: although the preferences of actors are to build a large number of heterogeneous relationship，the cost to maintain it is higher and it is hard to respond to the interaction request，which leads to the short term life cycle of the heterogeneous relationship; therefore， long-term cumulative effect leads to the researchers’ observation that most actors have more homogeneous networks than heterogeneous ones. The author found when the social network has positive functions， social network user are the actors with good relations，which is Endogenous Type I mentioned by T. Mouw; but when the network shows a negative function，the capable actors tend not to use the network，which is a special Endogenous Type II this research found. Therefore endogeneity proposed by T. Mouw does not have universal application. 

梁玉成

中山大学三期211“转型中国的社会建设实践问题研究项目”;“2009年度中山大学青年教师培育项目”的资助

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