Search results for ""Author Carl L. Bankston""

Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2015In recent years, immigration researchers have increasingly drawn on the concept of social capital and the role of social networks to understand the dynamics of immigrant experiences. How can they help to explain what brings migrants from some countries to others, or why members of different immigrant groups experience widely varying outcomes in their community settings, occupational opportunities, and educational outcomes? This timely book examines the major issues in social capital research, showing how economic and social contexts shape networks in the process of migration, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to the study of international migration. By drawing on a broad range of examples from major immigrant groups, the book takes network-based social capital theory out of the realm of abstraction and reveals the insights it offers. Written in a readily comprehensible, jargon-free style, Immigrant Networks and Social Capital is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate classes in international migration, networks, and political and social theory in general. It provides both a theoretical synthesis for professional social scientists and a clear introduction to network approaches to social capital for students, policy-makers, and anyone interested in contemporary social trends and issues.

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Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2015In recent years, immigration researchers have increasingly drawn on the concept of social capital and the role of social networks to understand the dynamics of immigrant experiences. How can they help to explain what brings migrants from some countries to others, or why members of different immigrant groups experience widely varying outcomes in their community settings, occupational opportunities, and educational outcomes? This timely book examines the major issues in social capital research, showing how economic and social contexts shape networks in the process of migration, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to the study of international migration. By drawing on a broad range of examples from major immigrant groups, the book takes network-based social capital theory out of the realm of abstraction and reveals the insights it offers. Written in a readily comprehensible, jargon-free style, Immigrant Networks and Social Capital is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate classes in international migration, networks, and political and social theory in general. It provides both a theoretical synthesis for professional social scientists and a clear introduction to network approaches to social capital for students, policy-makers, and anyone interested in contemporary social trends and issues.

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Combining theoretical approaches with practical applications, Rethinking Social Capital delineates the meaning, uses, and problems surrounding the concept of social capital. Carl Bankston, a leading scholar in the field, offers a fresh take on the topic, presenting an original way of understanding social capital as a process.The book provides key definitions of social capital, describing its functionality, the surrounding theoretical issues, and its relationship with social structure. Examining capital in its various forms, Bankston discusses the complications of defining social relationships in a financial resource analogy as investments in future outcomes, and proposes an alternative of an original structural model that approaches social capital as a process. Chapters then explore the major applications of social capital theory: to families, communities and education; to formal organizations and informal networks; to class, race, ethnicity and inequality; and to the nation-state. This cutting-edge book is invaluable in clarifying ambiguities surrounding the concept of social capital to students and scholars of the social sciences. Its practical applications will also prove useful to policy makers and public policy institutes.

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In this age of migration, more and more children are growing up in immigrant or transnational families. The "new second generation" refers to foreign-born and native-born children of immigrants who have come of age at the turn of the twenty-first century. This book is about this new generation in the world�s largest host country of international migration – the United States.Recognizing that immigration is an intergenerational phenomenon – and one that is always evolving – the authors begin by asking "Do members of the new second generation follow the same pathways taken by the 'old' second generation?" They consider the relevance of assimilation approaches to understanding the lived experiences of the new second generation, and show that the demographic characteristics of today's immigrant groups and changing social, economic, and cultural contexts require new thinking and paradigms. Ultimately, the book offers a view of how American society is shaping the life chances of members of this new second generation and how today's second generation, in turn, is shaping a new America.Designed as a rich overview for general readers and students, and as a concise summary for scholars, this book will be an essential work for all interested in contemporary issues of race, ethnicity, and migration.

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In this age of migration, more and more children are growing up in immigrant or transnational families. The "new second generation" refers to foreign-born and native-born children of immigrants who have come of age at the turn of the twenty-first century. This book is about this new generation in the world�s largest host country of international migration – the United States.Recognizing that immigration is an intergenerational phenomenon – and one that is always evolving – the authors begin by asking "Do members of the new second generation follow the same pathways taken by the 'old' second generation?" They consider the relevance of assimilation approaches to understanding the lived experiences of the new second generation, and show that the demographic characteristics of today's immigrant groups and changing social, economic, and cultural contexts require new thinking and paradigms. Ultimately, the book offers a view of how American society is shaping the life chances of members of this new second generation and how today's second generation, in turn, is shaping a new America.Designed as a rich overview for general readers and students, and as a concise summary for scholars, this book will be an essential work for all interested in contemporary issues of race, ethnicity, and migration.

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