Open research questions in Social Capital and Networks
257 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 3,394 Social Capital and Networks papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.
What the literature leaves open
The decline of trust in representative institutions has raised concerns about the stability and legitimacy of political systems. There is a need to understand how direct-democratic institutions can help address this erosion of trust. The relationship between direct-democratic participation rights and institutional trust is not well understood.
However, comparative research on the political consequences of spatial inequality is constrained by a lack of data that is geographically detailed and cross-nationally comparable.
Skills, Spatial Polarization, and the Politics of the Knowledge Economy: Introducing the Regional Human Capital Database · 2026 · DOIBackground: Three years after the acute phase of COVID-19, it remains unclear whether pandemic experience left a durable imprint on civic attitudes in Latin America, and which citizens continue to anticipate a recurrence.
Forgotten but Expected: Institutional Trust Configurations and the Anticipation of a Future Pandemic in Post-COVID Chile · 2026 · DOIAbstract Can a scandal in one political sphere tarnish – or unexpectedly polish – the reputation of leaders in another? This study investigates the impact of political scandals in multilevel political systems and explores three possibilities: contagion , where trust erodes across all political levels; containment , where evaluations are limited to the specific institutions involved; and contrast , where actors at other levels appear more trustworthy in comparison.
Future research should explore longitudinal dynamics and the interaction of social capital with digitalization and labor market transformation.
Although trust is widely recognized as key to effective public administration, little is known about trust dynamics, especially in typical governance relationships.
The Dynamics of Trust and Trustworthiness Perceptions in a Government Agency: A Longitudinal Perspective · 2024 · DOIThe study uses a non-probability convenience sampling strategy. The sample size is limited to 300 economically active individuals in Chile and Mexico.
Trajectories in tension: social capital, access to resources, and structural trials in Chile and Mexico · 2026 · DOIThe study identifies a gap in the literature on social capital and relational resources in the context of structural trials. The paper highlights the need for more research on stratification processes in Latin America.
Trajectories in tension: social capital, access to resources, and structural trials in Chile and Mexico · 2026 · DOIThe dominant approach to cross-national social cohesion treats regime membership as deterministic, hiding informative cases. The paper identifies a gap in the literature on social cohesion, particularly in the development of probabilistic typologies. The authors note that prior work has not adequately addressed the complexity of social cohesion mechanisms.
The paper identifies a gap in the existing literature on the relationship between social capital and antisystem voting behavior. The study highlights the need for further research on the complex relationship between social capital and voting behavior.
Less attention has been paid to how relational networks are gendered in contemporary China. The study aims to investigate the gender difference in social network segregation.
Third, the findings documented in this study are specific to the Chinese context, and it remains an open question whether or not we can generalize our conclusions cross- nationally; comparative studies are thus needed to explore the influence of macro-level sociocultural and sociopolitical environments.
Variation between persons in the study and target data. Differences in the treatment and outcome between the study and target populations. The need to measure all effect modifiers in the study and target populations.
Future research should consider the application of external validity to nonexperimental settings. Researchers should explore the use of reweighting techniques to address variation between persons in the study and target data.
Future research should continue to explore the role of socio-psychological traits and socio-political attitudes in the study of trust. Future research should examine the implications of the study's findings for policymakers and practitioners.
There is a limited understanding of individual-level variations in trust. Previous research has primarily examined various socio-economic and socio-demographic factors, but these provide only a limited understanding of individual-level variations in trust.
The study identifies a gap in the literature on the distribution of generalized trust across different types of communities in developing countries. The study seeks to contribute to the scientific evidence on this topic.
THE COMPARISON OF GENERALIZED TRUST BETWEEN PLACE OF RESIDENCE: A CASE STUDY OF NORTH MACEDONIA · 2026 · DOIThe study identifies a gap in the literature on the relationship between teachers' social network tendencies and their perceptions of workplace friendships.
The study identifies a gap in existing research on social isolation and mental health. The study highlights the need to consider psychological factors in social isolation interventions.
The Moderating Effect of Self-acceptance in the Relationship Between the Perceived Mutual Impact of the Vulnerable Elderly and Social Ties · 2026 · DOIThe relationship between economic capital and social tolerance has received limited attention. Previous studies have primarily investigated factors such as religiosity, media consumption, cultural intelligence, and psychological capital.
Impact of Economic Capital on Social Tolerance with the Mediation of Social Capital and Cultural Capital among Citizens of Isfahan Province · 2026 · DOIData from more recent years is less consistently available and may be heavily influenced by the short-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study leaves an updated investigation of later trends to future studies.
Future research should investigate the causes of declining political trust and its practical and normative implications. The authors suggest using mixed-methods research and experimental methods to illuminate the nature of citizens' trust judgements.
The study identifies the challenge of inconsistent findings and evidence for educational interventions, due to the lack of synthesis on social capital assessments. The use of standard Likert measures that lack alignment with social capital theory is also identified as a challenge. The study notes the challenge of developing valid and reliable measures of social capital, due to the complexity of the concept.
The integration of survey weights into SEM techniques has been limited - The debate over whether to use weights or not is still ongoing - The study only used two software packages: Mplus8.4 and Stata18
Do Weights and Complex Design Matter in Structural Equation Modeling for Social Studies? An Example of the Political Satisfaction-Political Trust Model · 2025 · DOIFurther research is needed to explore the consequences of complex sample analysis in different fields - Researchers should investigate the impact of different weighting approaches on the results of SEM analyses - The development of new methods and software for complex sample analysis in SEM is necessary
Do Weights and Complex Design Matter in Structural Equation Modeling for Social Studies? An Example of the Political Satisfaction-Political Trust Model · 2025 · DOI
Most-cited papers in Social Capital and Networks
- The Strength of Weak Ties · American Journal of Sociology · 1973 · 26,770 citations
- Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks · Annual Review of Sociology · 2001 · 13,771 citations
- Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology · Annual Review of Sociology · 1998 · 7,256 citations
- Not So Different After All: A Cross-Discipline View Of Trust · Academy of Management Review · 1998 · 7,195 citations
- Bayesian Model Selection in Social Research · Sociological Methodology · 1995 · 4,909 citations
- Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-Country Investigation · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · 1997 · 4,711 citations
- Social Behavior as Exchange · American Journal of Sociology · 1958 · 3,685 citations
- Social capital and economic development: Toward a theoretical synthesis and policy framework · Theory and Society · 1998 · 2,734 citations
- Social Capital, Networks, and Knowledge Transfer · Academy of Management Review · 2005 · 2,712 citations
- Factoring and weighting approaches to status scores and clique identification · Journal of Mathematical Sociology · 1972 · 2,538 citations
Most recent work
- Bringing External Validity into Sociological Research · KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie · 2026
- Growth Experiences and Trust in Government · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · 2026
- Unpacking the Paradoxes of Trust in Uncertain Times · Organization Studies · 2026
- Linkages between changes in communal space and evolving social capital: The mediating role of neighboring interaction frequency · Cities · 2026
- Building trust and resilience: how public libraries foster social capital in disadvantaged South African communities · Journal of Documentation · 2026
- Information Disclosure, Public Trust, and Social Satisfaction as Indicators of Good Governance and Quality of Life: Evidence from Local Administrative Organizations in Rural Thailand · Public Organization Review · 2026
- The state and its schooled elite across 84 countries: Educational differences in political trust depend on the schooled society and sector of employment · European Journal of Political Research · 2026
- Navigating the Blueprint: The Development of Institutional Trust Structures during Adolescence · European Journal of Political Research · 2026
- Visualizing Belief in Merit and Privilege, 1930 to 2020: Rejoinder · Socius Sociological Research for a Dynamic World · 2026
- Does political trust strengthen democracy? A cross-national longitudinal analysis · International Political Science Review · 2026
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