Building the Sustainable Community: Is Social Capital the Answer?

Abstract

Over the past decade, environmental sustainability has emerged as a prominent theme in the community development literature. In fact, the concept has become a standard feature of most economic and social development plans. Most models of sustainable community development stress the importance of widespread participation in the decision‐making process. Unfortunately, community studies document numerous barriers to broad involvement and the high level of activeness envisioned by proponents of sustainable community development. In searching for ways to overcome these barriers, scholars and policymakers have embraced the idea that we can enhance efforts to create more sustainable communities by increasing the local stock of social capital. We examine this line of reasoning in light of what we view as the most important conceptual issues surrounding the relationship between social capital and sustainable community development. We conclude that before social capital is endorsed as a central component of public policy, much work remains to be done in terms of developing a more precise definition of the concept, situating it within extant theories of community, constructing better measures of social capital, documenting the activities and networks most important in building social capital, and gaining a better understanding of the forms of social capital that are most important in developing sustainable communities.

Social Capital in Agricultural Community Development: A Review

“…This point shows that social capital is both a private and public good, with benefits accruing not only to those persons making the investments in social networks and groupings but also to the wider community in the form of positive externalities from farming communities to the larger society (Florida and Rousseau, 2005). Farming communities are important units in rural community development and locus of action, that in an increasing mechanized productive and fragmented world according to specializations, the search for a source of ensuring food production, no matter the techniques, is important and the presence of social capital will go a long way in boosting a favorable setting for socially equitable friendliness within the society for sustainable agricultural practices, that will lastly generate better quality for life (Bridger & Luloff, 2001;Salau & Atta, 2012). In most rural settings, social capital is seen as facilitating community self-help, allowing communities to easily work together to solve their collective problems and determine their development, as opposed to urban places where community self-help is persistently being eroded due to a lot of factors, therefore the building of social capital in our farming communities will be seen as an important facilitator with positive outcome in efforts for sustainable community development (Christenson & Robinson, 1989).…”

Building sustainability through collaborative planning

“…Bridger and Luloff [10] stressed that before social capital is considered as a central element of a public policy, much work should be done in terms of developing a more precise defi nition of the concept, situating it within extant theories of community, constructing better measures of social capital, documenting the activities and networks most important in building social capital, and gaining a better understanding of the forms of social capital that are most important in developing sustainable communities [10].…”

“…In searching for ways to overcome these barriers, planning scholars and policymakers have suggested the idea that we can create more sustainable communities through enhancing the local capacity of social capital. With this regard, most models of sustainable community planning stress the importance of widespread participation in the decision-making process [10,11].…”

“…Such issues are complex problems, requiring solutions which are not only scientifi c and technical but also social and economic [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

The Social Dimension of Sustainable Neighborhood Design: Comparing Two Neighborhoods in Freiburg, Germany

“…Public participation in the decision-making process is identified as a key component for the success of a sustainable community development project and is also an important nonphysical factor to urban social sustainability, as outlined in Table 1. Often, successful interventions due to sustainability concerns or new approaches to community development result from public engagement that are not possible from traditional top-down strategies (Bridger & Luloff, 2001). Instead, the knowledge and efforts of people familiar with local circumstances is essential.…”