Social Capital: The Glue That Binds Us Together

Social Capital, an unusual term. It isn't about money, but something much more valuable. It is about the relationships, trust and networks we develop as we interact with others. It creates strong, safe and resilient communities.
My appreciation of Social Capital is informed by the work of Robert Putnam, in particular the book “Bowling Alone in America”. This book is essential reading and assisted me in developing my understanding of this topic.

[Prof.Fulkerson]

It's important to distinguish bridging and bonding social capital, which is between and within groups, respectively. Within group bonding social capital is often based on sameness, but the nature of sameness is usually based, as Durkheim suggested, on the division of labor. If you have a community of factory workers, they have a lot in common. But if everyone does a different job, they have less in common (Durkheim would say they have organic instead of mechanical solidarity). The term homophily is used to identify bonds based on sameness. Homophily can be based on several different criteria, such as growing up in the same neighborhood, attending the same place of worship, rooting for the same football team, and so on. As Flora and Flora point out, you can have high within group bonding social capital and still have a fractured community--you need bridging social capital ties between groups.

[luisolorfit]

Social capital!

This reminds me of the movie “It’s a wonderful life” where everyone at the end, all his neighbors, everyone in his community come together at the end to pitch in and help, him and his family.

[steve]

You can't have diversity and high social capital. You need to be from a similar culture, background, and possible racial group.