Advantages And Disadvantages Of Social Capital

Author Lyda Hanifan defined social capital as “those tangible assets [that] count for most in the daily lives of people: namely goodwill, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse among the individuals and families who make up a social unit”. It is very hard to define social capital in a single sentence but to make it simple, social capital can be called the link, shared values and understandings in the society that enable individuals and groups to trust each other and work together.

Social capital is also defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as “networks together with shared norms, values and understandings that facilitate cooperation within or among groups.” Here, networks are those of friends, family, networks of former colleagues and so on. Studies suggest that social capital has benefits for a range of economic and

It shows the ‘cognitive side’ of social capital. “Trust is a standing decision to give most people - even those whom one does not know from direct experience - the benefit of the doubt” (Rahn and Transue, 1998). There are three types of trust - Trust of familiars that exist within established relationships and social networks. “Social trust” is the trust that is extended to strangers. Institutional trust is the trust in the formal institutions of governances. 3.02 Norms - Social norms are shared understanding in a community about what actions are proper or correct, or improper or incorrect, and actors enforce norms to perpetuate the social systems to which they are committed (Bendor and Swistak, 2001, Coleman, 1990). To put it in simple words, social norms are what people would generally do in a certain situation based on the expectations they know the society has from them. Social norms go hand in hand with formal and informal sanctions, which ensure that norms are a part of social