I met Alessandra several years ago when I created the study away course to Italy for the Honors College. I had used her article on social capital in Italy for my Honors class. You can read about that meeting in my September blog post, A Visit to Italy.
Despite jet lag (almost 7 hours), my time with Alessandra Righi working on our survey was productive. After arriving in Rome around 7:30am and getting refreshed for our 11am meeting, we spent three hours editing questions, discussing the Sardex network and conceptualizing the theoretical framework for the essay. The survey, written in Italian, will ask questions about trust, reciprocity and relationships amongst the Sardex members. Instead of focusing on Coleman and viewing Sardex as a closed network, we hypothesize that there are weak and strong ties in the network and those ties are connected to their expectations of profit and sustainability. The expected title of the essay:
Social Capital in the City: A network Analysis
Pictures cannot capture conversations over pizza and an espresso or discussing Lin’s theory of social capital versus Robert Putnam. I have included a few pictures of the day, including a picture of Alessandra translating the participant letter from English.
Onto to the next stop….Cagliari, Sardinia.
