fundación para la formación continua

In an attempt to address the above point, David (2001:04) said that social capital “may be

viewed metaphorically as a species of (glue) holding the constituent members of society together, and so permitting them to function more productively in the economic sphere‖. He

highlighted that social capital is “a form of knowledge‖ that is more a relational benefit than a personal characteristic possessed by individual performers: thus it is part of the complex networks of peoples social relationships, whereas human capital refers to an individual‟s specific competences, knowledge and skills. He also stated that the concept of human capital is “defined comprehensively” where it includes personal capacities, information, individual actions, and interpersonal transactions. By comparison social capital remains a more ambiguous idea around which there has been far less of an intellectual consensus as to its meaning or how it can be measured. Nonetheless it is reasonable to construe that there is a relationship between the two in that people are never just individuals, they exist in societies where they have relationships with others. It is these relationships, their social capital that feeds into and helps them develop their human capital (their individual qualities).

In contrast to social capital, Mincer and Polachek (1974) suggest human capital is a vital factor “to the extent that earnings in the labour market are a function of the human-capital

stock accumulated by individuals, a sequence of positive net investments gives rise to growing earning power over the life cycle" (Mincer and Polachek, 1974:78). They added that

“when net investment is negative, that is, when market skills are eroded by It depreciation,

earning power declines” (Mincer and Polachek, 1974: 78). So, what is the relationship

between social and human capital in the economics literature? Dasgupta & Serageldin (2001) believed that the concept of human capital is by now well accepted and they also argued that human capital is developed by its relationship to social capital. Social capital works across successive generations through the networks it creates that pass on values, beliefs and practices. These, in turn, inform successive generation‟s development of their human capital (their individual skills, competences and knowledge). The social relationships of social capital are crucial to a properly functioning capitalist market economy. For example, Coleman stated that “family relations are as important in the market as is the stability of

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human capital whether positively or negatively. Most families are aware that their children‟s future depends upon such factors as the need for a supportive home environment. Hence in many countries the emphasis upon the family supporting their children‟s education. For example, in Libya “Fadia”38

, a postgraduate student at the Academy of graduate studies in Tripoli, noted that many Libyan families are registering their children to learn English language from an early age. These families believe that the Libyan job market strongly requires such language skills if their children are to be successful. By way of contrast, “Salwa”39

, a postgraduate female student at Al-Fateh University Tripoli, explained that although she grew up in an educated family environment, that there were many other factors that could limit a family‟s efforts to support and improve their children‟s capabilities and skills. One of the most difficult elements is the child‟s desire and self-aspiration. For example she said that:

“My mother is a foreigner and English is our language spoken at home. Therefore, all

my family speak English well as we started using it when I was a child. However, since high school I don‘t really like using the English language because I remember a day when my teacher at the high school asked me to read a word, and I read it as I used to hear it from my mother, but my teacher told me that was wrong, she corrected it me. However, I insisted on saying it in the way that my mother spoke, but she disagreed and hit me with a stick. So I have hated speaking and learning English language since that time…

When I entered university I chose to study law, where we did not have a curriculum in the English language, and we did not even have English language lessons, so I felt comfortable. Nevertheless, our law literatures were dominated by examples using English and French terms and at that time I wondered how I could be successful in my career when I did not like the English language and dealing with it. In the end I was successful to the point I was assigned as research assistant at my university to do my postgraduate studies. However, after avoiding this language for a long time the problem

38

Fadia 28 years, one of the postgraduate female students who participating within the focus group that made at the Academy of graduate studies Jansue-Tripoli in Tripoli-Libya 17/04/2009

39

Salwa 30 years, one of the postgraduate students who participating within the focus group that made in Tripoli-Libya 21/04/2009

91 came up again when I was required to complete my postgraduate course. As I was specializing in International Law, which is mainly based on the English language, I had to develop my knowledge. I was supposed to finish my research this year, but my lack of English language skills has delayed me finishing until I reach the required level. I have brought up my experience to explain the fact that not only political decisions or financial inability that prevent from learning English language, but it is more about the person‘s desire and aspiration towards learning. Thus, in my case my personal environment was very suitable for learning English language, but I was not attracted to it at that time because of my experiences at school‖

Salwa‟s experience shows that whilst a family can play a crucial role in their children‟s educational life nonetheless it is the education and teaching quality that plays a greater role in shaping a child‟s intellectual development. Thus, the education sector is the second vital unit in the development of social capital where it is subject to social and governmental strategies in society. The assumption here is that a functioning society requires an educated populous. In order to illustrate the centrality of educational policies to the promotion of social and human capital we can consider the success of a number of Asian countries in recent decades. For example, after Singapore achieved its independence in 1965 it was able to transform itself by 1990, to become the state with the second highest standard of living in Asia, and six years later Singapore had exceeded several small Western countries in gross domestic product per capita (Dasgupta & Serageldin, 2001, and Tilak, 2002). In the 1980s the Republic of Korea was able to achieve a high rate of growth in its GDP of, on average, 9.4 percent per year, followed by a rate of growth of 7.2 per cent during the period 1990-95 (Ito 1997, cited in Tilak, 2002:03). In 1996 Korea was able to join the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD). During 1980 and 1990, had recorded an extraordinary rate of growth of 10.2 percent per year on average, followed by a still higher rate of growth of 12.8 percent. In order to generate this growth these countries concentrated on developing their human capital through a strong education system (Ciccantell and Bunker, 2004; OECD, 2007, and Tilak, 2002). Hence these countries and their economic performance in terms of economic growth, human development and education system, made them a great example for many developing and developed countries. The question remains, though, as the extent to which their particular experiences can be generalised to other parts of the semi-periphery and periphery and indeed the extent to which their development reflected any adherence to liberal

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theories. Furthermore, Dasgupta and Serageldin believe the high economic level that Asian countries have attained is in part because of their investment in human capital. “Conventional factors such as investments in human and physical capital and technology

only partially explain the high growth rates of the East Asian ―miracle‖ economies‖

(Dasgupta & Serageldin, 2001:44). The opinion that Asian countries would never be able to achieve economic development which had been expressed by numerous economists has been shown to be false. What has been shown is also the case with the „Asian tigers‟: South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and also both China and Japan. All have achieved social and economic success in part through massive state investment in their educational systems in contrast with the anti-statism of neo-liberal theory.