The concept of “social capital” and its use in the analysis of developmental dynamics

Abstract

In this paper, the author reviews the concept of social capital and poses its usefulness for analysing developmental dynamics. Firstly, he analyses the polysemic nature of this concept, showing how it has been defined in different ways from the range of sociological approaches. Secondly, he comments some of the dimensions of social capital, particularly embeddedness, and selects the dimensions that prove most useful for analysing development processes. Thirdly, following Michael Woolcock’s model, he presents a theoretical framework to situate the different dimensions of social capital, and analyse both bottom– up and top–down development dynamics. The most important idea of this paper is that the concept of social capital is useful for analysing developmental processes if its definition is extended to include dimensions that take into account, not only the processes of social integration within poor communities, but also the capacity and autonomy of individuals to establish social and economic relations with groups outside their own community, as well as the synergy between local institutions and their efficiency and credibility.