SOCIAL CAPITAL PRIMER
The central premise of social capital is that social networks have
value. Social capital refers to the collective value of all "social
networks" [who people know] and the inclinations that arise
from these networks to do things for each other ["norms of
reciprocity"].
How does social capital work?
The term social capital emphasizes not just warm and cuddly feelings,
but a wide variety of quite specific benefits that flow from the
trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation associated with
social networks. Social capital creates value for the people who
are connected and - at least sometimes - for bystanders as well.
Social capital works through multiple channels:
-
Information flows (e.g. learning
about jobs, learning about candidates running for office, exchanging
ideas at college,
etc.) depend on
social capital.
- Norms of reciprocity (mutual aid) rely on social networks.
Bonding networks that connect folks who are similar sustain particularized
(in-group) reciprocity.
Bridging networks that connect individuals who are diverse sustain
generalized reciprocity.
- Collective action depends upon social networks (e.g., the role that
the black church played in the Civil Rights movement) although collective
action also can foster new networks.
- Broader identities and solidarity are encouraged by social networks
that help translate an "I" mentality into a "we" mentality.
What are some examples of social capital?
When a group of neighbors informally keep an eye on one another's
homes, that's social capital in action. When a tightly knit community
of Hassidic Jews trade diamonds without having to test each gem for
purity, that's social capital in action. Barn-raising on the frontier
was social capital in action, and so too are e-mail exchanges among
members of a cancer support group. Social capital can be found in
friendship networks, neighborhoods, churches, schools, bridge clubs,
civic associations, and even bars. The motto in Cheers "where
everybody knows your name" captures one important aspect of
social capital.
There is also more information on social capital on our Frequently Asked Questions page.
For more information on social capital, read Chapter 1 of Bowling Alone or see the following:
Presentation:
There is a good PowerPoint overview of social capital through the Social Capital in Tampa Bay group.
The Social Capital Gateway (in Italy) has a fine site on social capital worldwide including recent books, theses, social capital events and conferences, basic readings on social capital.
The World Bank also has a strong site on social capital, with a searchable library about social capital articles.
Observatory Pascal often has links to new interesting research on social capital.
For a good description of social capital, see http://www.cpn.org/sections/tools/models/social_capital.html
For other good books or articles on social capital, visit our Bibliography or see:
Ahn, T.K., Elinor Ostrom, eds. Foundations of Social Capital: A Reader. Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. (2003) [Many interesting chapters, but see especially introduction by Ahn and Ostrom which is quite good, although it focuses overly on social capital as a vehicle to solve collective action problems, and not enough on the “private returns” to individuals from being in social networks.
Briggs, Xavier de Souza. "Social Capital and the Cities: Advice to Change Agents." National Civic Review 86, No. 2(Summer 1997):
111-118.
Better Together, The Report of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America. (2002 Reprint of 2000 Report, with new introduction; recommends strategies for re-engaging American communities).
First third is at: http://www.bettertogether.org/pdfs/bt_1_29.pdf
Second third is at: http://www.bettertogether.org/pdfs/bt_30_87.pdf
Final third is at: http://www.bettertogether.org/pdfs/bt_88_100.pdf Berry, Jeffrey M., Kent E. Portney, and Ken Thomson. The Rebirth
of Urban Democracy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1993.
Farr, James. "Social Capital: A Conceptual History" traces 'social capital' directly back to John Dewey in 1900. (work-in-progress)
Field, John. Social Capital. (Routledge, 2004) A good and readable summary of the concept of social capital, the ideas of 3 key social capital thinkers -- Bordieu, Coleman, and Putnam -- a distillation of the work showing the importance of social capital to education, economy and health, a discussion of the dark side of social capital and a discussion of social capital policy.
Gladwell, Malcolm. "Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg." January 11, 1999. New Yorker. http://www.gladwell.com/1999/1999_01_11_a_weisberg.htm
[Article quite useful on the value of bridging social capital -- although he calls them *connectors* -- only weakness is that he makes it sound like there are Herculean connectors, like Lois Weisberg, or non-connectors, when in reality even individuals who have some bridging relationships are adding a lot of value.] Discussion of this also found in The Tipping Point
Halpern, David. Social Capital. Polity Press, U.K., 2004. [Good discussion of social capital and a very useful distinction of micro, meso and macro level social capital and posits that social capital may achieve its effect by different causal pathways at the different levels.]
Lemann, Nicholas "Kicking in Groups." Atlantic
Monthly (April 1996): 22-24.
Loury, Glenn "The Social Capital Deficit." The
New Democrat (May-June 1995): 28-29.
Loury, Glenn, "The Divided Society and the Democratic Ideal." Boston
University's University Lecture, 1996.
Ostrom, Elinor and James Walker (Editors). Trust and Reciprocity: Interdisciplinary Lessons for Experimental Research.
Portes, Alejandro & Patricia Landolt, "The Downside of
Social Capital." The American Prospect 26 (May-June 1996): 18-21,
94. http://epn.org/prospect/26/26-cnt2.html
Potapchuk, William R., Jarle P. Crocker and William
H. Schecter, Jr. "Building Community with Social Capital: Chits and Chums
or Chats with Change." National Civic Review 86, No. 2 (Summer
1997): 129-140.
Putnam, Robert D. Making Democracy Work (Princeton Press, 1993).
Putnam, Robert D. Better Together: Restoring the American Community (Simon & Schuster, September 2003), with co-author Lew Feldstein, containing roughly a dozen chapters each describing promising new forms of social connectedness in diverse communities across America and what can be learned from across these examples.
Schambra, William and Michael S. Joyce. "A New Citizenship,
A New Civic Life." The Hudson Institute: 139-163.
Skocpol, Theda. "The Tocqueville Problem." Address
to Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association, New
Orleans,
October 12, 1996.
[An adaptation of this piece available here.]
Vanourek, Gregg, Scott Hamilton, and Chester Finn. Is There Life After Big Government?: The Potential of Civil Society. The Hudson Institute.
Verba, Sidney, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E.
Brady. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Walzer, Michael, "Civility and Civic Virtue in Contemporary America." In Radical Principles: Reflections of an Unreconstructed Democrat. New York: Basic Books, 1980.
Walzer, Michael. "Idea of Civil Society." Dissent
(Spring 1991): 293-304.
Resources on social capital
Our site has a lot of information about social capital on the FAQ page, bibliography page, the in the news page, the interesting research page, the social capital research page, and the social capital factoids page.
If you are looking for more information, you could also look at:
The Social Capital Gateway (in Italy) has a fine site on social capital.
The World Bank also has a strong site on social capital, with a searchable library about social capital articles.
Observatory Pascal often has links to new interesting research on social capital.
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factoids...
Joining and participating in one group cuts in half your odds of dying next year.
Every ten minutes of commuting reduces all forms of social capital by 10%
For information on how to increase social
capital in your own community go to www.BetterTogether.org
The final report of the Saguaro Seminar is now available at www.BetterTogether.org
Saguaro Home Page
New:
Robert Putnam explains social capital jargon
In this interview with the OECD Observer, Robert Putnam explains some of the social capital jargon.
What does "social capital" mean?
See also Saguaro's FAQ page about social capital |
