The concept

of
Social Capital
A Sociological Understanding
 Social Capital
• Social capital is a concept embedded in the
notion that relationship matters, bonding
matters and trust disposed in social network
matter. In other words, society maters!
• This is a resource embedded in the social
network. These resources are valued in a
society, the possession of which maintains and
promotes individual and collective interests.

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Social Capital
• The concept of social capital has become increasingly popular in attempts
to understand the negative impacts of growing excessive individualism and
privatization of resources in Western societies.
• The concept is clearly related to ideas that can be traced back to Emile
Durkheim about the beneficial consequences of participation in groups.
• This is a primordial feature of social life- namely, that social ties of one kind
(e.g., friend- ship) often can be used for different purposes (e.g., moral and
material support, work and non- work advice).

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Social Capital
• The concept of social capital has become increasingly popular in attempts
to understand the negative impacts of growing excessive individualism and
privatization of resources in Western societies.
• The concept is clearly related to ideas that can be traced back to Emile
Durkheim about the beneficial consequences of participation in groups.
• This is a primordial feature of social life- namely, that social ties of one kind
(e.g., friend- ship) often can be used for different purposes (e.g., moral and
material support, work and non- work advice).

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Social Capital
• A simple way to describe social capital is the benefits derived from being
social. The core idea of social capital is that ‘relationships matter’ and that
social networks are a valuable asset. That being social and working
together is important and valuable.
• It includes the store of solidarity or goodwill between people and groups of
people. You could think of it like a ‘favour bank’, although this only
encapsulates part of social capital. Another simple explanation is as
helpfulness behaviours resulting from feelings of gratitude, respect, and
friendship.

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Social Capital
• Social capital is about the value of social networks, bonding similar people
and bridging between diverse people, with norms of reciprocity.
• The folk wisdom that more people get their jobs from whom they know,
rather than what they know, turns out to be true.
• The core intuition guiding social capital research is that the goodwill that
others have toward us is a valuable resource. As such social capital is ‘the
goodwill available to individuals or groups. Its source lies in the structure
and content of the actor’s social relations and its effects flow from the
information, influence, and solidarity it makes available to the actor.

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Social Capital
• Social capital is fundamentally about how people interact with each other.
• It is about 1) the nature of our social connections, and 2) the norms and
shared understandings that influence our action and interaction.
• Most scholars agree that social capital is multidimensional and is an
umbrella term for a range of social factors such as networks, norms, trust,
social identity, belonging, and many more.
• Social capital is about knowing a lot of people well, but it’s more than that:
It’s about having strong positive relationships embedded in positive social
structures with a lot of people from a variety of backgrounds and positions.

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Various Definitions
• Social capital has been approached from different perspectives and
different disciplines, resulting in a huge variety
of definitions and conceptualisations.
• The commonalities of most definitions of social capital are that they focus
on social structures that have productive benefits.
The information, trust, and norms of reciprocity inhering in one’s social networks…

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 • The concept of social capital rests on the
assumption that there are positive consequences
of sociability. The idea that relationships can have
positive impacts for the individual and the
community is not new. This goes back to Emile
Context of Durkheim’s emphasis on group life and group
solidarity.
the • According to Putnam in the United States due to
technological (watching television rather than
Concept going to club meetings, for example), economic
(globalization and the reduced importance of local
employers) and political (reduced consensus over
major issues and increasing political divisions)
changes social capital has been in decline which
in turn are causing many problems.

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 What is so special about
the concept of Social
Capital?
Social capital has many advantages-
• Social capital has been credited with the ability to cure many
social problems including poor public health, crime, alienation,
vandalism, poverty, civic irresponsibility, underdevelopment,
and others.
• Social Capital helps people resolve problems of collective
cooperation more easily.
• Social Capital facilitates development, heightens awareness of
our globally connected fates, fosters the
• Social capital helps in flow of useful information and . find jobs
and maintain businesses
• Social capital helps people cope with trauma and depression
etc.
• The examples of resource could be wealth, reputation and
power. They can be either ascribed or achieved.

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Social Capital
• The concept of social capital suggests that
resources are often available in social
relationships, social trusts and threads that
connect communities to communities. These
intangible aspects of bonding between and within
communities are have sociological importance.
• The concept of social capital reminds us that
there is importance of social connections and
social relations in achieving goals.

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Social • The concept of Social Capital helps to
bridge the conceptual gap in the
Capital understanding macro-micro linkage
between structure and individuals.
• This can be best understood by
examining the mechanisms and
processes by which embedded
resources in social networks are
captured as investment.

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Social Capital
• Social capital is a form of capital in
which social networks are central.
• Transactions are marked by
reciprocity, trust, and cooperation.
• Common purpose of public goods are
served.
• This is the form of trust and social
cohesiveness that promote
cooperation and mutual dependence

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 Social Capital
The essence of the concept of social capital
is in a phrase, “it is not only what you know
but also who you know makes a difference in
your life and society.

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How it works?

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How does Social Capital Work?
1. Flow of information is facilitated. Social ties work in imperfect situation
like ours. This provides important information about useful opportunities
and ties.
2. These social ties may exert influence on the social agents. Hence,
these carries a certain weight in the decision-making process regarding
the individual.
3. Also works as a social credential certifying the personal credentials of
social agents.
4. Social relations are also supposed to reinforce identity and
recognition.
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Social Capital works at three levels-
• At the level of the individual, social capital tends to focus on social
networks and the characteristics of these relationships.
• At the group or organisation level, there tends to also be a focus on social
norms and social structures such as roles and rules.
• At the community or societal level, the focus tends to be on trust,
trustworthiness, civic norms, association membership, and voluntary
activities.

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Social Capital
reminds us that-

• Capital works in the forms of

networks, norms, and social trust
that facilities coordination,
cooperation for mutual benefits.
• Relations are based upon factors
like, place of residence, kinship,
and friendship and get
strengthened by trust and
respect

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Few tangible examples of the benefits of
social capital
• We intuitively understand that we can derive benefits from our social
relationships with others, whether it be as simple as finding a reliable
mechanic (which can save you money) or borrowing a cup of sugar from a
neighbor (which can save you time) or finding a new job or client (which
can make you money).
• In fact, social capital is what allows humans to collaborate, coordinate, and
coexist. It is essential to the human social existence.

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 TYPES OF
SOCIAL CAPITAL
• 1. Bonding
• 2. Bridging
• 3. Linking

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Bonding Social Capital
• Bonding social capital is a type of social capital that describes
connections within a group or community characterised by high levels
of similarity in demographic characteristics, attitudes, and available
information and resources.
• Bonding social capital exists between ‘people like us’ who are ‘in it
together’ and who typically have strong close relationships.
• Examples include family members, close friends, and neighbours.

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Bridging Social Capital
• Bridging social capital is a type of social capital that describes connections
that link people across a cleavage that typically divides society (such as
race, or class, or religion).
• It is associations that ‘bridge’ between communities, groups, or
organisations.

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Linking social capital
• Linking social capital is the third type of social capital.
• Linking social capital is a type of social capital that describes norms of respect
and networks of trusting relationships between people who are interacting across
formal or institutionalized power or authority gradients in society.
• An example could be relationships between a community-based organisation and
government or other funders.
• Linking social capital may be viewed as an extension of bridging social capital
involving networks and ties with individuals, groups or corporate actors
represented in public agencies, schools, business interests, legal institutions and
religious/political groups

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Benefits of
Social Capital
• There are many benefits of social
capital as the concept relates to human
sociability, i.e., our ability to work
together, to connect to community, work
for greater goods collectively, and to
form the organisations in any society
• Social capital influences career
success.
• Social capital helps workers find jobs
and creates a richer pool of talents

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 James S. Coleman stressed that social capital
exists in the relationship between actors. Robert
Putnam, however, who has been most
successful in converting an academic concept
Contemporary into one that can be easily operationalized and
social capital measured so that it can be deployed through
theory generally practical actions by government agencies and
other institutions. For Putnam, social capital is
traces its origins predominantly a characteristic of "societies" or
to three scholars. "communities". Whereas Bourdieu emphasized
the class character and reproducing of social
inequalities through many such forms of capital.

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James Coleman
• James Coleman, an American sociologist utilised the concept of rational choice theory
and put this in the operation for analysis of social systems. This is the mid-way of the
theoretical debate between social structure and individual choice.
• For Coleman, individuals engage in social interactions, relationships and networks for as
long as the benefits persist. This logic stems from rational choice theory which seeks to
explain human behaviour through rationality. These rational actions are set in a particular
social context accounting for not only the actions of individuals, but also the development
of social communities and organisations.
• In this sense, social capital is both a private and public good benefiting everyone in the
group, not only those who invest in organizing the associations or networks.
• For example, everyone in a neighbourhood benefit when people of neighbourhood.
Coleman saw social capital as a public good where the actions of individuals benefit the
whole.

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James Coleman

• Coleman calls this the "appropriability of social structure”.

• The term appropriability of social structure entails appropriation of many
concepts, like social trust, trust building, culture, community, informal
organisation, communication and information flow etc. bringing under the
rubric of the term social capital.

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Robert D. Putnam
• Robert David Putnam, an American political scientist published a famous
book Bowling Alone, which argues that the United States has undergone
an unprecedented collapse in civic, social, associational, and political life
(social capital) since the 1960s, with serious negative consequences.
• Putnam treated social capital as a public good—the amount of
participatory potential, civic orientation, and trust in others available to
cities, states, or nations. In Putnam’s conceptualisation social capital is
elevated from a feature of individuals to a feature of large population
aggregates.

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Robert D. Putnam
• Social capital becomes a collective trait functioning at the aggregate level. Putnam made
the argument that social capital is essentially the ‘amount’ of ‘trust’ available.
• This is the main stock characterizing the political culture of modern societies.
• For Putnam social capital refers to ‘features of social organizations, such as networks,
norms and trust that facilitate action and cooperation for mutual benefit’. Putnam follows
Coleman’s belief that social capital is a quality that can be a facilitator of interpersonal
cooperation.
• In Putnam’s view, such a feature can be considered an aggregate trait to such a degree
that it can become automatically comparable across cities, regions and even countries.
According to Putnam’s scheme of concept, as a property of communities and nations
rather than individuals, social capital is simultaneously a cause and an effect.

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Bourdieu’s Social Capital
• Pierre Bourdieu, a French sociologist and public intellectual was primarily
concerned with the dynamics of power in society. His work on the sociology of
culture continues to be highly influential, including his theories of social
stratification that deals with status and power.
• Bourdieu’s conceptualization of social capital is based on the recognition that
capital is not only economic and that social exchanges are not purely self-
interested and need to encompass ‘capital and profit in all their forms.
• Bourdieu’s conceptualization is grounded in theories of social reproduction and
symbolic power. Bourdieu’s work emphasizes structural constraints and unequal
access to institutional resources based on class, gender, and race.

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Bourdieu’s Social Capital
• Bourdieu saw social capital enables a person to exert power on the group or individual
who mobilises the resources.
• For Bourdieu social capital is not uniformly available to members of a group or collective
but available to those who provide efforts to acquire it by achieving positions of power and
status and by developing goodwill (Bourdieu, 1986).
• For Bourdieu social capital is irreducibly attached to class and other forms of stratification
which in turn are associated with various forms of benefit or advancement.

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Social Capital works-

• Groups and Networks

• Trust and Solidarity
• Collective Action and Cooperation
• Information and Communication
• Social Cohesion and Inclusion
• Empowerment and Development

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