Digital Capital and the Transition to Digitalization in Romanian Social Work: A Theoretical and Applied Perspective Book Review: Alina Bărbuță, The Digital Capital Index in the Context of the Transition to Digitalization of the Social Work System, Lumen Publishing House, Iași, 2025 [Indexul capitalului digital în contextul tranziției către digitalizarea sistemului de asistență socială, Editura Lumen, Iași, 2025]
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/14.2/120Keywords:
digital capital, social work education, digital inequalities, evidence-based policyAbstract
This review examines Alina Bărbuță's work on digital capital in Romanian social work, which offers a significant contribution to digital sociology and social work practice. The book proposes digital capital as a distinct form of capital, extending Bourdieu's theoretical framework to the digital context. Through three complementary empirical studies employing methodological triangulation, the author analyzes the integration of digital competencies in social work education, students' digital literacy levels, and labor market expectations. The work highlights Romania's position among Europe's lowest-ranked countries in digital competencies according to DESI, emphasizing persistent digital divides across urban-rural, gender, age, and socioeconomic dimensions. The author develops a digital profile for entry-level social workers and provides evidence-based recommendations for curricular reform and public policy development, demonstrating how digital capital mediates the relationship between online experiences and offline outcomes in social work practice.
References
Bărbuță, A. (2025). The Digital Capital Index in the Context of the Transition to Digitalization of the Social Work System, Lumen Publishing House, Iași [Indexul capitalului digital în contextul tranziției către digitalizarea sistemului de asistență socială, Editura Lumen, Iași]
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The Forms of Capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (pp. 241-258). Greenwood Press.
Merisalo, M. (2016). Bourdieu’s Theory and Digital Capital: Exploring the Benefits of Digital Technologies in a Bourdieusian Framework. Journal of Digital and Social Media Marketing, 4(3), 203-217.
Ragnedda, M. (2017). The Third Digital Divide: A Weberian Approach to Digital Inequalities. Routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/97813 15605907
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