A Mixed Methods Approach to Studying Social Capital In An International Coalition

Abstract

Public relations as a communication practice contributes to a fully functioning society by bringing organizations, groups and individuals together to discuss issues. Public relations also helps to build advocacy coalitions. Rhetoric enables the creation and sustainment of coalitions and helps coalition members achieve a shared understanding of the events and issues they seek to address. Social capital emerges from the communicative relationships within a coalition's network. Public relations plays a vital role in advocating and maximizing the efforts of individuals and organizations in advocacy coalitions.

This study began with the intent to address three conceptual gaps in the public relations and network literature. First, there is a need for empirical evidence supporting or refuting claims that shared meaning and social capital are related. Shared meaning has been depicted as an outcome of organizations, groups, and individuals communicating their interpretations of events and issues. Social capital has been portrayed as an outcome of complex networks of relationships among organizations, groups and individuals. Second, this dissertation explored previous researchers' claims that organizations' network positions give them influence in an advocacy coalition. The literature suggests that organizations should position themselves at structural holes to broker information and resources. Third, this study expanded the context of social capital research to examine an international coalition that relies on mediated communication. Prior research has suggested that mediated communication can reduce social capital thus potentially diminishing the social capital in a virtual advocacy coalition.

This dissertation studied the social capital and shared meaning in a virtual international advocacy coalition. A multi-method study, which included a textual analysis, interviews, and a network analysis survey, focused on the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA). SuSanA is an international advocacy coalition with 225 local and international NGOs, private firms, and government entities. The members of this advocacy coalition shared a common vision of providing people around the world with access to proper sanitation. Members in the coalition rely on mediated communication channels to coordinate their efforts.

The findings revealed a strong association between shared meaning and social capital in dense portions of the advocacy network. The study's results suggested that organizations' network positions were related to being perceived as cooperative, distinguished as important, and sharing meaning with others. The data also indicate that the richness of communication channels augments social capital within the network. In measuring social capital, the study helped to operationalize the communication dimension of social capital using fantasy theme analysis from symbolic convergence theory. The results further develop the use of social network analysis to study social capital by demonstrating a method to assess communication and shared meaning within a network. The study demonstrates public relations has a role to play in building social capital and fostering shared meaning within networks.