Assets and Affect in the Study of Social Capital in Rural Communities

Abstract

Shucksmith (2012) has recently suggested that rural research might be refreshed by incorporating theoretical insights that have emerged through a renewal of class analysis. This article seeks to advance this proposed research agenda by exploring the concept of asset‐based class analysis and its association with the concept of social capital. The article explores connections between social capital, class analysis and understandings of community, noting how all have been associated with long running and unresolved debates. Attention is drawn to the problems of modernist legislative approaches to these debates and the value of adopting more interpretive perspectives. A distinction between ‘infrastructural’ and ‘culturalist’ interpretations of social capital is explored in relation to ‘asset‐based’ theorisations of class and culture. It is argued that an infrastructural conception of social capital might usefully be employed in association with a disaggregated conception of cultural capital that includes consideration of emotion and affect, as well as institutional, objectified and technical assets. These arguments are explored using studies of rural communities, largely within Britain.

The Role of Social Capital in Agricultural and Rural Development:Lessons Learnt from Case Studies in Seven Countries

“…Authors such as Van der Ploeg and Marsden (), Falk and Kilpatrick (), Karlsson and Stough (), Bebbington () and Phillips () have emphasised the important role of social capital in integrated rural development strategies. Van der Ploeg and Marsden () and Von Münchhausen and Knickel () conceptualised social capital as one of the key building blocks of what they called the ‘rural web’ and argued that these building blocks need to come together in order to respond to the challenges faced by rural economies to improve the sustainability of rural livelihoods and their prosperity (Van der Ploeg ; Von Münchhausen and Knickel ; Rivera et al .…”

“…). Against this background, it is not surprising that social capital plays an important role in agricultural as well as in integrated rural development strategies, and that even the World Bank is engaging in social capital building (Bebbington ; Dasgupta and Serageldin ; Falk and Kilpatrick ; Paldam ; Harris ; Van der Ploeg and Marsden ; Karlsson and Stough ; Phillips ; De los Ríos et al . ).…”

Comparative approaches to gentrification

“…Important disciplinary differences have been identified within French rural studies ( Lowe and Bodiguel, 1990 ), although in both geography and rural sociology during the 1980s and 1990s, there was an emphasis on empirical studies, with limited engagement with social theory and epistemological reflections ( Alphandéry and Billaud, 2009 ; Papy et al, 2012 ). This was despite notable French social theorists who have influenced gentrification studies in the Anglophonic world, such as Bourdieu and Lefebvre, undertaking early work in rural sociology ( Elden and Morton, 2016 ; Phillips, 2015 ).…”

“…Circulatory sociologies of translation are, however, often far from direct: Although the concept of gentrification appears not to have translated readily into French public and academic discourse, the writings of French social theorists such as Bourdieu, Latour, Lefebvre and Waquant have exerted a profound influence on UK and US gentrification studies (e.g. Bridge, 2006 ; Butler and Robson, 2003 ; Phillips, 2010 ; 2015 ), although not on French rural studies.…”

New Rurality, Events, and Festivals in Selected Places of Rural Spain

“…In this line, rural events can contribute, in different ways, to local economic diversification and rural development. This takes place, also, by indirect sources reinforcing the label of attractive places (Mitchell and Roberts 2003), or a changeable value in the construction of local social capital (see Phillips 2016).…”