Saturday, January 31, 2009

social capital discussion?

I don't have much to add to the 3rd place debate. It seems that the general consensus is that our blog has the potential for being a third place with the exception that it is not a home away from home. How you define "3rd place" depends on how much you value having an actual physical location.

To what extent do you think our class is bridging or bonding social capital? (I know we discussed this in class, but I don't think anyone has addressed it online).

1 comment:

eemartin2 said...

I’m glad you asked the bridging/bonding question. I think it’s a good one. It was suggested that our class is basically well-to-do, white kids with similar backgrounds, but I think they can still have very different perspectives to offer. Having people from farms, cities, and other parts of the country brings diversity to the class. I also don’t think it’s safe to assume that our financial backgrounds are so similar either. About half of the people I met in Texas were either working to pay their way through college or were surviving on scholarships, and I’m guessing it’s a similar story here. The class is bonding in the sense that we are probably similar in many ways (i.e. we all value education, chose to go to UW, and took this class), but I think we are different in enough ways to make the class a bridging experience too.

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