<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Human knowledge and creative potential has become one of the most important driving forces of humanity progress. In the context of the twenty-first century, in order to create a high-quality culture environment, it requires a paradigm shift in education - the transition to education, which stimulates the imagination, intuition, emotions and creative ideas and develops critical thinking. Non-formal education and the skills and knowledge gained in it is still in evaluation and recognition phase in Latvia. It is still developing; therefore, it is important to create a clear understanding of the importance and social role of non-formal cultural education. The paper aims to explore the role of non-formal cultural education in strengthening social capital as well as to identify what social capital indicators can be attributed to non-formal cultural education programmes. The topicality of the study is determined by the fact that non-formal cultural education and social capital in the context of Latvia are little explored areas, as well as there is lack of research on mutual reciprocity. The study uses qualitative research methodology. Research analyses non-formal cultural education programmes of 10 subordinated institutions of Latvian Ministry of Culture (museums, theatres, concert institutions and opera) and on the basis of 19 in-depth and semi-structured interviews. Study contains new, theoretically based evaluation model of social capital and characterizes of indicators in the context of non-formal education. The study confirms that there is a mutual reciprocity between social capital and non-formal cultural education programmes, and these programmes have a positive and supportive role in strengthening both the individual and collective social capital.</p></abstract>

Human knowledge and creative potential has become one of the most important driving forces of humanity progress. In the context of the twenty-first century, in order to create a high-quality culture environment, it requires a paradigm shift in education - the transition to education, which stimulates the imagination, intuition, emotions and creative ideas and develops critical thinking. Non-formal education and the skills and knowledge gained in it is still in evaluation and recognition phase in Latvia. It is still developing; therefore, it is important to create a clear understanding of the importance and social role of non-formal cultural education. The paper aims to explore the role of non-formal cultural education in strengthening social capital as well as to identify what social capital indicators can be attributed to non-formal cultural education programmes. The topicality of the study is determined by the fact that non-formal cultural education and social capital in the context of Latvia are little explored areas, as well as there is lack of research on mutual reciprocity. The study uses qualitative research methodology. Research analyses non-formal cultural education programmes of 10 subordinated institutions of Latvian Ministry of Culture (museums, theatres, concert institutions and opera) and on the basis of 19 in-depth and semi-structured interviews. Study contains new, theoretically based evaluation model of social capital and characterizes of indicators in the context of non-formal education. The study confirms that there is a mutual reciprocity between social capital and non-formal cultural education programmes, and these programmes have a positive and supportive role in strengthening both the individual and collective social capital.

The Mutual Reciprocity of Education, Non-Formal Cultural Education and Social Capital

University College of Economics and Culture,

Economics and Culture

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Human knowledge and creative potential has become one of the most important driving forces of humanity progress. In the context of the twenty-first century, in...

The Mutual Reciprocity of Education, Non-Formal Cultural Education and Social Capital

Published Online: Dec 30, 2016

Page range: 35 - 43

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jec-2016-0018

Keywords
education, non-formal cultural education, social capital

© 2017

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The Mutual Reciprocity of Education, Non-Formal Cultural Education and Social Capital

Published Online: Dec 30, 2016

Page range: 35 - 43

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jec-2016-0018

Keywordseducation, non-formal cultural education, social capital

© 2017

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
education, non-formal cultural education, social capital