Social Capital Literature Review

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It is clear from both theoretical and empirical literature that social capital is a context specific notion and an outcome of a particular community and locality. And so, studies conducted so far and to be conducted in the future in this area could have their own contribution in enriching the theoretical, methodological, and empirical literature of the subject matter. As indicated above, the theme of social capital has got diminutive attention in the policy framework and strategy of national and local governments. Moreover, the relationship between social capital and poverty has never been studied so far among Konso community. Given this reality, this study could generate useful information mainly from rural community perspective and give…show more content…
Yet there is no consensus among analysts and scholars regarding its definition, measurement, kinds, dimensions, and role in the development. Because social capital, while not all things to all people, is many things to many people (Narayan & Pritchett, 1999). As Francis (2002) notes conceptual differences of social capita are largely definitional and epistemological. Likewise, authors such as Dolfsma & Dannreuther (2003) and Foley & Edwards (1997) argue that social capital does not have a clear definite meaning mainly due to substantive and ideological…show more content…
It involves resources; networks; social structure; trust and reciprocity; norms; formal and informal institutions, associations and relationships; values; attitudes; feelings; knowledge sharing; rules and expectations; mutual understandings and benefits; that would either facilitate or impede society’s coordinated actions to exploit opportunities or solve existing and potential problems and contribute to economic and social development. Definitions of social capital also vary in their purpose (securing economic and human capital or effective democracy or economy) (Winter, 2000), level of analysis (individual, household, community, national, or international), and measurements (quantitative or qualitative measures or both). Notwithstanding these divergences, many of the definitions and aspects of social capital include structural (organizations, associations, networks, etc.), cognitive (attitudes, norms, shared values, reciprocity, generalized or personalized trust) elements (Francis, 2002) and relational aspects such as ‘inequality’ (Winter,
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