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Social capital is about the value of social networks, bonding similar people and bridging between diverse people, with norms of reciprocity. Although today it would ld be hard to come up with a single definition that satisfied everyone, is it possible to agree on social capital as the links and the shared values and understandings that enable individuals and groups to trust each other and so work together. The concept of social capital has been in use for almost a century. In a 1916’s book that discussed how neighbors could work together to oversee schools, Lyda Hanifan referred to social capital as “those tangible assets [that] count for most in the daily lives of peo people: ple: namely goodwill, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse among the individuals and families who make up a social unit”. In recent years, the term entered the popular imagination with the publication in 2000 of Robert Putnam’s bestseller, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Putnam argued that while Americans have become wealthier, their sense of community has withered. As people spend more and more time in the office, commuting to work and watching TV alone, there’s less time for joining community groups and voluntary organizations organizations, and socializing with neighbors,, friends and even family. Social capital has three main categories: - Bonds: Links to people based on a sense of common identity (“people like us”) – such as family, close friends and people who share our culture or ethnicity. - Bridges: Links that stretch beyond a shared sense of identity, for example to distant friends, colleagues and associates. - Linkages: Links to people or groups further up or lower down tthe social ladder.
Social capital allows citizens to resolve collective problems more easily. People often might be better off if they cooperate, with each doing her share. In this sense, social capital greases the wheels that allow communities to advance smoothly; where people are trusting and trustworthy, and where they are subject to repeated interactions with fellow citizens, everyday business and social transactions are less costly. Moreover, social capital widens the awareness about personal believe believes: s: when people lack connection to others they are unable to test the veracity of their own views people. Without the opportunity to participate in casual conversation or in more formal deliberation, people are more likely to be swayed by their worse impulses. Thus, the members of a community, by setting up common structures and use shared resources, they put in place mechanisms of information management, identity building, and social integration able to capitalize their know-how how for the development of thei theirr community and for a broader social change. For these reasons social ocial capital is a concept that iiss attracting interest among politicians and policy makers. makers
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