Social Capital

Social Capital is a popular idea in the social sciences that provides a way of examining the healthiness of a given community. Brought to the forefront most recently by Robert Putnam, social capital can be thought of as the investment individuals make in relationships with each other. It can also be thought of as links in social networks. The idea is that civic behavior requires a degree of trust and mutual reciprocity in a community, and the more those feelings exist, the more likely a community will develop structures necessary for stability from within. This stability has been strongly tied to constructive developement of a community, encouraging economic developement while maintaining community identity and continuity. Not all social capital is good, however; some of it can be normatively judged as bad social capital. It can be further divided, too, into bridging and bonding varieties. In general, however, Putnam and others have drawn strong correlations between social capital and the healthiness of society. Putnam also links the decline of civic society in the past two decades with the decline in social capital.

Allan Friedman
January, 2002