Capitale Sociale e vitalità scolastica.Una ricerca etnografica in contesti educativi

This work focuses on the concept of social capital applied to educational contexts. The theoretical framework refers to the first American scholars who highlighted the importance of social capital as a resource for the educational world, but also takes into account the current trends followed by authors who deal with the topic, both in Italy and in America. The aim is to stress the importance of this concept in the context of schooling, which in Italy, as in other European countries, is going through years of deep crisis, distrust and loss of authority. The analysis of social capital represents therefore a new perspective from which one can look at the worlds of education and training, suggesting new fields of application and study of pedagogy. This contribution, using the ethnographic method for the analysis of the current situation and for the historical reconstruction of two school contexts in the Northern Italian city of Verona, is an example of qualitative approach to the study of social capital.