Social Capital, Networks, and Community Environments in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

This paper considers the case of Bangkok where, as in many Asian cities, the expansion of urban areas has outpaced the ability of public entities to manage and provide basic services. One potential way to improve the capacity of neighborhoods to assist in provision or improvement in environmental services is to enhance the positive contributions provided by local social networks and social capital. A conceptual framework is presented to explore the role of social networks in environmental management in polluted urban environments. This is followed by a brief description of the methodology and survey instrument used to collect information from a sample of community households in Bangkok and an analysis of the results from this survey regarding environmental practices, community action, and social networks. Some of the results suggest that increasing the number of social interactions that residents of a community experience is associated with increased community participation as, apparently, is increasing knowledge about what happens to waste or waste water after it leaves the community. Local public education efforts that focus on useful knowledge about environmental impacts may well be an effective way to encourage community participation. Copyright 2002 Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.

Social Capital and Trust in South-east Asian Cities

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“…The survey contained a number of questions regarding trust and co-operation, including the National Opinion Research Centre's General Social Survey that has included questions on trust since 1972. 10 Table 2 presents the mean values of a trust index that we constructed using responses to the trust question to summarise each individual's basic level of trust (Daniere et al, 2002). 11 While we found evidence of a high level of trust using the survey, it appears that respondents in Vietnam are somewhat less trusting of their neighbours and community members than respondents in Thailand.…”

“…Some questions differed in tone or exact translation because native speakers felt that the language used or the approach taken in English or the other language was not appropriate for that given context. Details regarding the survey and implementation procedures can be found in Daniere et al (2002). 7.…”

Community-based Planning and Poverty Alleviation in Oaxaca, Mexico

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Poverty, Work and Social Networks: The Role of Social Capital for Aboriginal People in Urban Australian Locales

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