Social Capital Research - Jean Augustine Chair

Social Capital Research Tools

There are a number of research tools that will be used in this project. A detailed questionnaire was answered by over 1,500 respondents in the largest ever such survey conducted in Canada. We are now preparing to recruit individuals in our focus groups and 1:1 interviews.

The Social Capital research which is being conducted by the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora in partnership with 91��ɫ School of Continuing Studies, Coalition of Innovation Leaders Against Racism (CILAR), 91��ɫ TD Community Engagement Centre, and Black Opportunity Fund (BOF). We are interested in learning about your experiences pertaining to your employment and career path – such as pursuing job opportunities and building support networks – that will enable you to attain the job you desire.

This research aims to understand how factors such as level of education, gender, class, ethnicity, race, sexuality, mentorship etc. influence people's chances to obtain employment and advance in their careers in Canada.

About the Survey

The Social Capital survey which is being conducted by the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora in partnership with 91��ɫ School of Continuing Studies, Coalition of Innovation Leaders Against Racism (CILAR), 91��ɫ TD Community Engagement Centre, and��Black Opportunity Fund (BOF). We are interested in learning about your experiences pertaining to your employment and career path – such as pursuing job opportunities and building support networks – that will enable you to attain the job you desire.

By participating, you will help us and others understand how relationships with important people in your life, like family members, friends, and mentors, influence your job prospects and career goals. Our goal is to use this information to create programs that can help break down barriers to career advancement and support individuals like you in achieving your goals.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

This research contributes to filling a research gap by conducting the first-ever longitudinal survey focusing on how social capital could be acquired and used towards realizing the ambitions of racialized individuals. The survey will examine social capital in a race-conscious way by focusing on the voices of racialized people. In this way, the research will contribute to the development, reimagining and implementation of strategies and programs that provide better support for the upward social mobility of racialized people, in education, in the workplace and in life in general.

The goals of the focus group discussions and interviews is to understand:

How individuals access employment opportunities and develop social supports to achieve their goals
The extent to which relationships with their social networks – particularly mentors – have contributed to the development of individuals’ needs, interests, and aspirations
How relationships with colleagues, mentors and others have enabled individuals to navigate occupational structures toward their career aspirations and social ambitions

Focus groups and 1:1 interviews will be a maximum of 90 minutes in length and will be conducted via Zoom link to be provided upon your confirmation of participation.

There will be approximately 7-10 participants in each focus group.

a) The information you provide during the focus group discussion or individual interview will contribute to creating programs that might help to address and/or reduce – if not eliminate – barriers to occupational and career advancement and support individuals to achieve set goals.

b) We hope that the data generated from the discussions and interviews will be used by educational institutions, business establishments, service agencies and other organizations to respond to the needs, interests and issues of marginalized and racialized people, and to inform culturally relevant supports that will address systemic barriers to social mobility for marginalized people.

The purpose of the research is to investigate the experiences of racialized individuals' access to employment opportunities by which they seek to establish their occupational path, develop social supports, and realize their goals of social mobility conscious of their social capital mediated by race, class gender, level of education and other intersection identities in an inequitable Canadian society.

The goal of the research is to hear from individuals about their construction and understanding of their social capital and the extent to which the relationships with significant others and mentors have operated in response to their needs, interests and aspirations enabling them to navigate the occupational structures they encounter.

Social capital refers to a form of capital that is informal and is based on social relationships, norms and trust within a community or network. Social capital is the value derived from social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trust that arise from social relationships.

Social mobility refers to changes in a person’s socioeconomic situation, either about their parents (inter-generational mobility) or throughout their lifetime (intragenerational mobility).

Economic mobility refers to changes in an individual’s economic status over a lifetime and across generations- usually measured in income.

The main partners in this study are The Jean Augustine Chair, 91��ɫ School of Continuing Studies, and the Coalition of Innovation Leaders Against Racism (CILAR). Other partners are TD Community Engagement Centre and Black Opportunity Fund.

This study focuses on all individuals who want to participate in the study, however, there is a focus on understanding the voices of racialized peoples, particularly Black Canadians and their experiences with accessing social capital toward their upward mobility.

The goal is for the government of Ontario will use the data to not only respond to the needs and issues of racialized peoples but also inform future supports that are culturally relevant and address systemic barriers to social mobility.

The survey data is going to be anonymized and may be deposited into one or more publicly accessible scientific repositories, such as 91��ɫ Dataverse, an institutional research data repository, managed by 91��ɫ Libraries and provided by Scholars Portal on behalf of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL).

No, your information and the identity you provide during the survey/interview will be kept strictly confidential. All audio recordings and any transcriptions will be assigned a unique identifier code and stored securely on password-protected servers. Only the researchers involved in this study will have access to the interview data. Any identifying information will be removed or anonymized to ensure your privacy. The data collected will be reported in aggregate form and will not be linked to your personal identity.

Participants can reach out to the principal investigator Professor Carl James or Cynthia Kelly at jachair@edu.yorku.ca.

Yes! Please so you can learn about our latest research and receive invitations to attend our upcoming events. You can also read the research of the Jean Augustine Chair in our "publications" section of our website.

Yes, there are benefits to participating in this survey such as deriving the knowledge that you have contributed to improving the support for racialized people by acting as key informants to research that aims to inform the work of university administration, public officials, and members of the community at large.

Also, for your time, we will give 200 focus group participants and 100 1:1 interview participants $25 each in a random draw. Participants do not need to have completed a focus group or 1:1 interview to be entered into this draw. If you stop participating, you will still be entered into the draw.