Building community with social capital: Chits and chums or chats with change

Abstract

We often say in politics, it is not what you know, it is who you know. We say that disparagingly, recognizing that key players are often connected only to small inner circles, effectively excluding whole parts of the community and whole segments of the population from access, decision malung, and resources. Too many chits are being exchanged, only by chums.Social capital is also about who you know, but there is something different. We see qualitatively different relationships. Instead of logrolling and exchanges of favors in smoke-free back rooms and over cell phone networks, we see block parties and block watches, multisectoral partnerships, support networks for the most vulnerable among us, and real relationships among Anglos, Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans. We see chats-real conversationsthat promote change. If we look harder, we see authentic communities, blossoming civic infrastructure, governments that work, and places we want to live.Social capital, we believe, seems different depending on where you look. The social capital among neighbors that builds healthy neighborhoods and supports families seems different from the social capital among civic groups, local government, and community activists. And even that seems different from the social capital among mayors, senior business leaders, top appointed officials, and others who are engaged in managing the affairs of the regional city-state.If social capital appears different depending on where you look, are we indeed seeing different aspects of the same thing? Should we be speaking about social capital in such general terms? The premise of this article is that social capital is woven through all the relationships in a community and therefore needs to be spoken of in broad terms, but the existence of social capital in all its facets is a necessary and critical ingredient for building healthy communities.

The Deployment of Partnerships by the Voluntary Sector to Address Service Needs in Rural and Small Town Canada

“…Local government, and other public and private bodies, can facilitate the building of partnerships and networks by sponsoring dialogues through public meetings, workshops, community forums, local committees, or local advisory boards, and by developing policy that encourages collaborative decision-making (Berman and West 1995;Potapchuk et al 1997;Scott 2004;van der Voort and Meijs 2004). Businesses may provide contributions to partnerships through financial resources, technical expertise, management training, volunteer support, board participation, or through their ability to leverage their relationships with other stakeholders, such as policy makers (Googins and Rochlin 2000).…”

“…Trusting relationships may be labelled as ''bonding'' social capital since they intensify local ties and strengthen the ability within groups or organizations to work together to solve problems and address needs (Larsen et al 2004;Wallis 1998). Examples of bonding social capital may include community events or social clubs (Potapchuk et al 1997). Trusting relationships among groups inside or outside of the community are often labelled ''bridging'' social capital since they link local groups to a wider pool of ideas, experiences, advice, and support (Putnam 2000;Wallis 1998).…”

NGOs’ Social Capital Development Initiatives for Social Welfare: Bangladesh Experience

“…A number of studies showed that social capital is used as similar to other social welfare concepts such as community development (e.g. Kay 2005;Islam 2014bIslam , 2012b, community building (Putnam 1993;Potapchuk et al 1997), community empowerment (Islam and Morgan 2012a, b), and participatory development (Durston 1999). The scope of social capital in terms of the improvement of the quality of relationship among all social networks and its application in a wide range of sectors has given a new meaning and guidance for practice (Kwok 2003).…”

Building social capital within the framework of agricultural cooperatives development in rural Nepal

“…For example, scholars have shown that government can play an important role in building local social capital by decentralizing power (Evans 1996;Potapchuk et al 1997). In sum, as Lowndes and Wilson (2001) argue, while the governance is affected by social capital as suggested by Putnam (1993), it also influences building and utilization of social capital.…”