Network social capital as a subject of research in education

Abstract

The article contains the results of a comparative analysis of the main approaches, directions and methods for studying network social capital in the social sciences and humanities in order to identify the latest and promising scientific areas in specific scientific disciplines. The article notes the growing interest of scientists from various fields – philosophers, sociologists, political scientists, economists and lawyers, teachers and psychologists in the study of the phenomenon of network social capital as a complex and multifaceted category that generates a plurality of approaches and methods for studying its genesis, types, formation mechanisms and measurement parameters. To achieve this goal, multidisciplinary and integrated approaches to research, methods of comparative analysis and classification of information, bibliographic analysis are used. On the basis of the analysis, the essential methodological foundations of the study of network social capital are revealed, the relationship of the methods used (quantitative, qualitative and mixed) with the profile of the scientific discipline that studies network social capital is shown. It is indicated that each scientific discipline brings unique ideas and methods to the study of social capital, including qualitative and quantitative, mixed methods, network analysis, experiment, etc. The author reveals the urgent need for the integration of methodological approaches and research methods of network social capital as an independent field of research based on the synthesis of ideas, concepts and principles of polydisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity.