Making Social Capital Work

Making Social Capital Work

Contested Concepts in Gender and Social Politics

The study of gender and social politics is an expanding area. This text, suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, looks at contested concepts and themes in the subject.

Social Capital

Social capital may be defined as social networks, the norms of reciprocity and trust that arise from them, and the application of these assets in achieving mutual objectives. Social capital is quite important for the efficient performance of modern economies and for the development of a stable liberal democracy. The creation of networks and trust, ideas central to mainstream thinking about social capital, seem to be fundamental in allowing change to occur smoothly. This book proposes certain designs, that appear to encourage the social interactions of sense of belonging that lie at the heart of the idea about social capital. The role of social capital in the strategic organisation of family businesses are also explored. While managers at other firms and government bureaucratic officials have a positive and monotonic relationship with performance, that for social capital from politicians has a negative relationship with performance for non-family businesses.