Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital re-tested: Consequences from Social Media Adaptation for NPOs

According to Manuel Castells (1996) the invention of the Internet with its possibility to “integrate […] into the same system the written, oral and audio-visual modalities of human communication” (328) is a “technological transformation of […] historic dimensions” (328) comparable to the invention of the alphabet 2700 years ago. In recent academic discourse there is broad consensus that the emergence of social media has been posing huge opportunities for public relations work. It has become an important tool – particularly in the non-profit sector. Financial provision may no longer be the crucial factor for NPOs’ opportunities to exert far-reaching influence on civil society (Nah/Saxton: 2012). We have linked research on social capital with the social media adaptation of NPOs. Pierre Bourdieus (1983) prediction of social capital reproducing social inequalities could be offset here by the opportunities social media offer. This is also one of the assumptions of scholars of the digital divide. In accordance to Bourdieu’s concept there are three different forms of capital: Economic capital (money, real estate), cultural capital (individual education, cultural goods, human capital) and social capital, meaning resources in the form of relationships and social obligations, originating from group affiliations. All three forms are mutually dependent and convertible into one another. Due to the social capital’s characteristics of operating as a multiplier effect, enhancing the efficiency of economic and cultural capital, it serves Bourdieu as an explanation for the emergence and reproduction of societal structures and social inequalities. We assume his concept to prove less important in today’s field of Non-Profit-Organizations, due to social media’s ability to convert cultural and social capital into economic capital and thereby empowering NPOs with limited resources. From the existing literature on public relations work of NPOs two approaches of social media usage can be extracted: a top-down approach, which manifests itself in a one-sided supply of information and a bottom-up or rather circular approach, promoting the responsive interaction between the organization and its stakeholders, known as the concept of “dialogic communication” (Kent/Taylor: 1998). We therefore differentiate between “Knowledge Management” and “Relationship Management” – the one transforming cultural capital the other one social capital into economic capital. Our study examines which mode of social media adaptation may help to effectively mobilize stakeholders and the public for an organization’s agenda, by comparing the web presence of European NPOs with different approaches of social media usage. For this purpose we have conducted a multivariate analysis based on Rfacebook. Our first findings suggest that indeed a “dialogic” social media presence may have become the decisive factor for NPOs with limited resources in order to enhance their competitiveness. Beyond the academic findings/implications we propose best practices for the non-profit sector itself. We would like to share and discuss our research with the ECPR- community.