Social Capital - Explained
What is Social Capital?
Written by Jason Gordon
Updated at May 11th, 2022
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Table of Contents
What is Social Capital?What are the Elements of Social Capital?What are the Foundations of Social Capital?What is Social Capital?
Social Capital concerns the value that an individual (organization or person) receives as a result of their social relationships and connections.
What are the Elements of Social Capital?
Key components of social capital are:
- Trust
- Level of cohesion
- A sense of community and belonging
- Unrestricted and participative communication
- Democratic decision making
- Sense of collective responsibility
What are the Foundations of Social Capital?
The foundations of Social Capital include:
- Embeddedness: economic action and value is embedded in social relationships and cannot be explained adequately by considering individual actors separately.
- Appropriability: social connections of a particular type can be used for different purposes, including for those they were originally not intended (i.e. using a relation with a friend to help with finding a job or exploring a business opportunity).
- Reciprocity: actors do something for you because they are hoping or confident that the favor will be returned by you or even by someone else.