Dr. Troy Glover ranked most influential scholar in social capital field

Recreation and Leisure Studies Professor Troy Glover was recently recognized as the top scholar in the field of social capital, based on total publications, citation impact, and both h-index and g-index in a recently published systematic review. 

The review, which was published in the Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Review, analyzed 4,295 peer-reviewed journal articles on social capital over the past three decades. Using bibliometric methods, researcher P.A.B.H. Amarathunga identified the most active and influential scholars in the field. Glover ranked first.

The study identified emerging trends in the field, such as social networking, entrepreneurship, innovation, knowledge management, social media, sustainability, human capital, psychological capital, intellectual capital, governance and collective action. Over his 25 years as a researcher, Glover has made exceptional contributions to advancing understanding in social capital research.

“The best thing we can do for our health and happiness is cultivate positive relationships of all kinds,” he said. “Those investments pay off as social capital that we can draw upon to get by and get ahead in life.”

Glover added, “Through my research, I've learned that leisure matters because it creates the conditions for sociability that help relationships grow rather than wither, thereby renewing our stores of social capital. If social capital is the dividend of relationships, then leisure is how we earn and renew it.”