Social Capital as Dehumanizing Terminology

Robert J. Taormina, Angus C. H. Kuok, Wei Wei

Psychology Department, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Macau, Macau (SAR), China.

DOI: 10.4236/aasoci.2012.22019                

Abstract

This paper argues that the term “social capital” is an inappropriate terminology that is unsuited for theory or scientific empirical research. The arguments challenge the metaphor and definition by revealing the phrase to be dehumanizing, oxymoronic, anachronistic, and demeaning, which makes it incorrect, and even immoral, for proper use. It is also argued that the term is 1984-ish vis-à-vis Doublethink and Newspeak. It is recommended that the metaphors for “social capital” and its related term, “human capital,” should be dropped from use. It is further recommended, for the purpose of increased clarity for theory building and for empirical research, and to avoid using dehumanizing terminology, that it is more appropriate to retain the term “social networking” as the general name for the process; such that, when attempting to measure related social networking concepts, researchers should specify operationally defined variable names that are more suited to proper scientific measurement of the research domains. For example, if “friends” are studied as helpers in a social network, that term may be used as a variable name, but under no circumstances should one’s friends, or other people, be referred to or regarded as “capital.”

Keywords

Social Capital; Terminology; Dehumanizing; Critique; Oxymoron; Anachronism

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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