Theory of Social Networking on empowerment of People: Concept building and Testing at two villages in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study attempts to develop a theory on how social networking facilitates to empower people. Muhammad Mahboob Ali, the corresponding author developed the social networking model in 2016. The study extensively tries to display a comparative picture regarding different dimensions of empowerment before engaging in social networking and after involving in social capital, social business and social investment along with social intelligence, social enterprises. A concept was tried to build on social networking and then for this applicability of the concept testing along with two co-authors. Two villages at Khulna District of Bangladesh were chosen to collect data and build a social networking model. Data for this study was collected through direct interview method, following an interview schedule during February to April 2016. The result from the study described that woman empowerment is directly related with Social Networking, Social intelligence and social entrepreneurship along with social capital and social investment. Women’s socio-economic conditions are not good before getting involved in social networking. After social networking, the socio-economic conditions of the women and empowerment through an increase in income of the family had improved, as they started to participate in different income generating activities and had control over income, expenditure, credit and savings. Women could then participate in household decision-making process, more than before. It was found that in dimensions the women started to become more empowered due to social networking.