ETHICS and SOCIAL CAPITAL

1
ETHICS and SOCIAL CAPITAL

• Al Condeluci, PhD
• UCP/CLASS

2
The Magic Wand

• If you could wish for 3 things for yourself or
  for someone you love, what would they be?

3
When this question is asked the most common 3
things are

• Healthfulness
• Happiness
• Longevity

4
The realization of your Magic Wand is Achievable

• How?

5
Through Social Capital!
6
Research Shows

• Healthfulness
• Happiness
• Longevity
• ARE ALL TIED TO SOCIAL CAPITAL!

7

• QUITE SIMPLY, THE MORE SOCIAL CAPITAL YOU HAVE,
  THE MORE HEALTHFULNESS, HAPPINESS, AND LONGEVITY
  YOU HAVE
• WE ALSO KNOW THAT SOCIAL CAPITAL ALSO BUILDS
  TOLERANCE, RESPECT, HONESTY, FAIRNESS IN A WORD
  ETHICS AMONG PEOPLE

8
What is Social Capital?

• It is nothing more than relationships and
  friendships that people have in their lives

9

• Social Capital represents the resources available
  to individuals through their social affiliations
  and membership in community organizations. It
  refers to aspects of social relationships that
  act as resources for individuals and facilitate
  collective action for mutual benefit.

10

• If you belong to no groups and decide to join
  one, you cut your risk of dying in half over the
  next year
• Robert Putnam

11
Major Domains in Relationships

• Acquaintanceships people we know
• Friendships People we do things with
• Covenant People we love

12
Bridging Social Capital

• Acquaintanceships
• Early Friendships
• These are when we first get to know someone and
  we find out the commonality we have between each
  other. Reciprocation becomes common

13

• The very first step in the evolution of ethics
  is a sense of solidarity with others
• Albert Schweitzer

14
Similarity vs. Difference

• When people meet it is through their similarity
  but when difference is engaged a polarization can
  occur. Similarities connect differences repel.
• What gets us beyond difference are
• Staying in the mix regularity
• Finding more similarity

15
Bonding Social Capital

• Close Friendships
• Covenant
• This is when we deepen our bond and close ties
  and watch out for each other. We want to spend
  more time together.

16
Measuring Social Capital

• Sociograms Social Network Inventories
• These are social maps that identify relationships
  in the three major domains
• People we know
• People we do things with
• People we love

17
Building Social Capital

• In order to build social capital you must be
  active (or at least present) in the community.

18
4 Steps to Social Capital

• Identify our key areas of interest
• Find the matching group or community
• Understand how communities behave
• Finding a gatekeeper to acceptance

19
Identifying the commonality

• Passions
• Hopes
• Skills
• Talents
• Interests
• Capacities
• Fantasies

20
Finding the Matching Group

• Newspaper
• Television
• Yellow Pages
• Internet meetup.com
• Ask others
• Observe

21
How Communities Behave

• Rituals
• Patterns
• Jargon
• Memory (history)

22
Find the Gatekeeper

• Observe
• Ask
• Introduce
• Support

23
Gatekeepers

• Is someone who is natural to the community who
  has some influence on others. They might be
  formal, or informal leaders who set the tone for
  what others do in the community.

24
Types of Gatekeepers

• Proactive people who are open and reach out to
  others
• Reactive people who are closed and see others
  difference and problems

25

• The significant problems we face cannot be
  solved at the same level of thinking we were at
  when we created them.
• A. Einstein

26

• Belonging, not escape, is the natural moral
  imperative.
• Robert Nisbit

27
The Bridgebuilder

• An old man going a lone highway, came to a chasm
  deep and wide.
• The old man crossed in the twilight dim, that
  sullen stream held no fear for him.
• But he turned when safe on the other side, and
  built a bridge to span the tide

28

• Old man said a pilgram near, you are wasting
  your time building here.
• You never again will pass this way, your journey
  will end at the close of this day
• You have crossed the chasm deep and wide, why
  build you this bridge at even tide?

29

• The builder lifted his old gray head, in the way
  that I have come he said.
• There follows after me this day, a youth whose
  feet must pass this way.
• This bridge which has been nothing to me, to the
  fair-haired youth must a pitfall be.
• Yet he to must cross in the twilight dim, good
  friend I am building this bridge for him!

30

• We must become the change we hope to create.
• Gandhi

31

• Al Condeluci, PhD.
• UCP/CLASS
• 4638 Centre Ave.
• Pittsburgh, PA 15213
• 412-683-7100 x 2122
• acondeluci_at_ucppittsburgh.org
• www.ucppittsburgh.org