Fifth ENGIME workshop announcement and call for papers
TRUST AND SOCIAL CAPITAL IN
MULTICULTURAL CITIES
19-20 January 2004, Athens, Greece
http://www.feem.it/engime
The ENGIME network (Economic Growth and Innovation in Multicultural
Environments) and the Center for Economic Research and Environmental
Strategy (C.E.R.E.S), invite you to participate in our call for papers.
The main goal of this multidisciplinary workshop is to shed light on the role of
social capital and its main components, such as trust and networks, in all the
dimensions of social life in modern multicultural cities.
We invite Academic and non-Academic professionals from the various
disciplines, such as economics, sociology and political science, to submit
theoretical papers, case studies and experiences to aid our effort in dealing
with the following four topics:
Topic-1# Trust and social capital as driving forces of growth in cities
Although research efforts have been devoted to understanding the effect of
social capital on economic growth since Putnam's seminal work (1993), there
are still many unanswered questions concerning in particular the relevance of
social capital in multicultural cities.
These cities are characterized by the
influx of a large amount of economic immigrants from different cultures that
tend to "carry" their networks and level of trust from their place of origin. In
such a multicultural environment, there may be a need for a new "social
capital" that will promote trust and cooperation among different "social
capitals".
Relevant issues include: the positive or even negative role of social capital on
growth, how can we measure the stock of social capital (as a prerequisite for
empirical works)?, evidences on the effect of social capital on growth, if the
coexistence of many different networks or communities (in which the
participation is a key element for the construction of social capital) promote
growth, if the different forms of social capital in a multicultural environment
could shed light for the more efficient structure of it, the correlations of the
social capital and other dimensions of the quality of life.
Topic-2# The exact nature of Social Capital: Trust and Networks, its
main components
Social capital is not a homogenous term as highlighted in the many different
definitions found in relative bibliographies. Irrespectively, the concepts of
trust and networks areclosely related to social capital andhence merit a
closer analysis. The link between personal and social characteristics of trust
is still unclear because of its multiple nature (like its dynamic and self
reinforcing nature, the discrimination between lateral and vertical trust, the
difference between trust and trust worthiness) and needs more research.
Networks are also a key component of social capital that needs to be
explored more.
Relevant issues include: the specific nature of trust and networks, their link
with what is called social capital, the special conditions of constructing
networks in a multicultural environment, networks as means for increasing
trust and dealing with racism and other pathologies of multicultural cities,
trust as a means for reducing production, exchange and other forms of cost,
the conditions and presumptions that would promote trustworthiness.
Topic-3# Building Social Capital in multicultural cities
There seems to be no agreement among academics concerning the possibility
of the government to affect the stock of social capital. The inability of the
government may arise due to two reasons. Firstly, many authors have
suggested that the construction of social capital is an unintended process,
and therefore it is not possible to consciously affect it. Secondly, the
construction of social capital is a very long-term process, and therefore the
policy makers are unlikely to be able to influence its formation given their
short-term electoral horizon. Yet, the question, if we can affect the stock of
social capital, is theoretically still open, even only because governments may
build the initial conditions leading to a long-term process of building social
capital.
Relevant issues include the possible exclusion of immigrants from well-
specified, closed, ethnical homogenous networks (as components of what we
call "social capital"), the endogenous nature of the social capital, that gives
the ability to the government to construct the conditions that would promote
the development of social capital, or its exogenous nature that does not allow
any possibility for the government to affect it, the coexistence of multi
networks (among different social groups), or differently the coexistence of
many different forms of social capital, of different social groups, the role of
institutions in social capital (not only the government, but also church, family,
school, etc.), experiences of policies that attempted to alter the social
capital, the special role of markets (or marketization) on social capital.
Topic-4# Problems associated with the notion of Social Capital
Because of its abstract nature, the notion of social capital has been criticized
in many directions. Examples are, the causal link with economic development,
the empirical methodology of its measurement (due to the difficulty
associated with its qualitative, non measurable characteristics), and/or its
aggregation, over individuals (the mapping of the respective individual
characteristics into the social ones). Issues such as the exact relationship
between social capital and notions like inequality or power and conflict are
also quite unclear.
Relevant issues include: the theoretical aspect of investigating the causality
between social capital and economic growth,
the relationships between
social capital, inequality, power and conflict,
the (static and/or dynamic)
links between individual and social characteristics, the key role of education,
especially in multicultural environment for composing, or even decomposing
social networks.
Submission of Abstracts and Final Paper
Those interested in participating in this work should send an abstract
(approximately 500-700 words) by e-mail to the workshop organizers by
November 8, 2003. Decision on acceptance will be given by December 8,
2003. Final papers should be submitted by December 30, 2003.
E-mail
katsoul@aueb.gr or
nde@dias.aueb.gr
Format: All papers must be accompanied by the abstract and should be
written according to the following rules:
1. One-page, single-spaced abstract (in English);
2. Name(s) of author(s), with the surname of the presenter in CAPITALS;
3. Institution affiliation, e-mail and address of authors.
Language: The working language of the workshop will be English
Procedure: Each paper will be discussed by experts and may be published in
the Working Paper Series of the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) after
being subject to a standard review procedure.
A selection of papers from these workshops will be published in one of the
two books that ENGIME will publish.
Each workshop will produce a policy report for the European Commission
based upon all inputs and discussions. This policy report will be made available
to all participants of each workshop.
Accommodation and Travel Expenses:
When appropriate, accommodation and travel expenses (train tickets, APEX
flight tickets) of speakers will be partially reimbursed.
Workshop Organisers:
Prof. Ioannis Katsoulakos, CERES,
E-mail:
knet@hol.gr
Dimitris Zevgolis, CERES,
E-mail:
ceres@k-netgroup.com
Nickolas Demenagas, CERES,
E-mail:
nde@aueb.gr
Center for
Economic
Research and
Environmental
Strategy (
CERES): 1, D.
Soutsou Str.-115 21 Athens
-Greece
Tel: (+30210) 6464619 - Fax: (+30210) 6464535
E-mail: ceres@k-netgroup.com
Steering Committee
Prof. Wim Moesen, OS- Faculty of Economics and Applied Economics, Catholic
University of Leuven, Belgium.
Dafne Reymen, IDEA Consult, Brussels.
Dino Pinelli, FEEM, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Milano.
What is ENGIME?
ENGIME is an interdisciplinary network of European scholars, supported by the
European Commission. Its main purpose is to provide European researchers
with an interdisciplinary forum that studies the complex relationships between
economic growth, innovation and cultural diversity. The working idea is that
cities offer a natural laboratory for studying diversity at work and its interplay
with economic growth and innovation. Cities are places where different
cultures and languages meet, where conflicts more often explode, but also
where there are examples of versatility and open-ended capacities for
economic creation. The objective of this network is to gain an understanding
of the social, cultural and institutional conditions that are favourable to
learning and innovation in multicultural cities.
