There's more to the picture than meets the eye: Measuring tangible and intangible capital in two marginal communities in rural Denmark

Abstract

A missing link in economics has been what Veblen in 1908 termed intangible capital. This includes common norms, trust and high levels of cooperative performance. Intangibles are invisible to the eye and not easily measured in quantitative terms. They nevertheless involve visible, socioeconomic outcomes and should therefore rightly be seen as productive, like tangibles. Thus, uneven levels of intangible capital would explain Differential Economic Performance (DEP) between, say, two firms containing exactly the same stock of physical, economic and human capital. Despite this common sense observation, most economists have failed to see that 'there's more to the picture than meets the eye', as Neil Young once sang. We use statistical, historical and fieldwork data from two Danish, marginal rural communities both rich on intangible capital. This to show how intangible capital in the form of social, organisational and cultural capital is accumulated and utilised in situ, at the microlevel. We suggest that the difference between these two, very similar communities should be explained in their varying ability to utilise local stocks of tangible and intangible capital. Drawing on seminal ideas from ], we want to develop a 'total capital' assessment tool for mapping and measuring socioeconomic development in marginal rural communities. In this way, we hope to count in 'all' capital as Schultz [Investment in human capital. In: Kiker, B.F. (Ed.) Investment in Human Capital. Columbia, 1971, pp. 3-21] prophesised. This in order to explain what we term Differential Local Development (DLD), where 'good', sustainable development is associated with high economic performance and increase in population. r

Rescuing a small village school in the context of rural change in Hungary

“…The ties between choir members are strengthened during rehearsals on the basis of their shared membership and identity, bonding the members of the Lutheran congregation. The choir can also be regarded as a 'platform for integration' (Svendsen and Sorensen, 2007) of the two religious communities, thus it is a locus for enhancing bonding and bridging social capital as well as "provide members a sense of belongingness" (after Lin, 2008: 60). Active religious life itself also strengthened ties in Erd} okürt, the feasts and holidays spent within the framework of the religious communities, together with piety and reverence for authority, and the shared belief that acquiring a proper education is paramount.…”

“…Svendsen and Sorensen found positive examples when they investigated two marginal communities in rural Denmark. According to their findings, supra-local networks, and linking social capital based on them are important local resources, "by extending local networks to the whole region and further it becomes possible to get access to information and advice" (Svendsen and Sorensen, 2007), something the Erd} okürt decision-makers desperately missed.…”

Bourdieu’s non-material forms of capital: Implications for start-up policy

“…However, empirical studies of cultural and symbolic capital during venture creation are scant (Drakopoulou Dodd, 2014;KaratasOzkan, 2011;Lee, 2011;Light and Dana, 2013;Scott, 2012;Shaw et al, 2008Shaw et al, , 2009Shaw et al, , 2013Vershinina et al, 2011). Bourdieu (1993:64) also maintained that 'job definitions', 'posts' and 'different positions…their modesty or daring…[their] disinterestedness or thirst for profit' helps explain 'divisions' in the field of economic production, created as a consequence of disparities in the amounts and forms of non-material capitals available to actors (also see Svendsen and Sorensen, 2007). Building on this, DeClercq and Voronov (2009a:411) posit that entrepreneurial capital accumulation must be considered 'as an activity located at the intersection of entrepreneurs' lives and professional trajectories'.…”

A Feature-Based Semantic Model for Automatic Product Cost Estimation

“…On the other hand, another kind, intangible data are those attributes that are not obviously or directly related to cost elements but implicitly associated that the relationships are to be discovered and defined dynamically like the data describing context, background, social status, organizational attributes and cultural data. The third kind of data is interactive and subjective that requires engineering inputs from marketing managers, designers, process engineers, and purchasers; this kind of data fills the gap between the tangible and intangible data types [10]. For doing reasonable and accurate cost estimation, all these three kinds of data are needed.…”