ABSTRACT

Social capital has become a cornerstone to community development. Unfortunately, its scope of research, particularly on policy, creates more smoke than light. This essay builds on an interdisciplinary foundation for a more inclusive approach to social capital research. Though broad evidence supports Putnam’s claims on social capital, our understanding is incomplete, partly due to scholars’ focus on individual disciplinary perspectives. We summarize social capital and its use as a development tool, and consider how to move toward a more interdisciplinary framework. We explore where communities have created and evaluated social capital, cross-disciplinary insights, empirical work suggesting cause-effect, and offer three examples of interplay between social capital and community development: the built environment, migration, and entrepreneurship. Our conclusion presents a conceptual model including all Community Capitals rather than treating them piecemeal, viewing the community as a system under what ecologists call the “law of the minimum” wherein limiting elements constrain growth.

摘要

社会资本已成为社区发展的基石。不幸的是，它的研究范围，特别是在政策方面，产生的烟雾多于光。本文建立在跨学科基础之上，旨在采用更具包容性的社会资本研究方法。尽管有广泛的证据支持普特南关于社会资本的主张，但我们的理解并不完整，部分原因是学者们对个体学科观点的关注。我们总结了社会资本及其作为一种发展工具的用途，并考虑如何走向一个更加跨学科的框架。我们探讨了社区在哪里创造和评估了社会资本、跨学科见解、表明因果关系的实证工作，并提供了三个社会资本与社区发展之间相互作用的例子：建筑环境、移民和创业。