Building Social Capital in Rural Areas: Does Public Action Help?

Cecchi C¹*, Basile¹*

1. SPES Centre for Development Studies – University of Roma “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy

The paper deals with the process of building social capital as constrained by the availability of public and private services. The purpose is to show that social capital shapes, both in positive and negative terms, the capacity of local institutions to support development projects and strategies. The analysis assumes that a higher level of social capital gives to communities a stronger planning capacity; a lower level of social capital implies that new initiatives are implemented only if they give private individual benefits; a higher level of social capital generates actions that increase and improve social capital itself.

The first section outlines the logical links between the concept of social capital and the availability of “services”. Social capital is here seen as a public good. Section 2 focuses on the relationship between the supply of public services and the level of social capital. Evidence from the “Italian welfare system” in Southern Tuscany shows that public transfers fail in reducing territorial and social marginality, while people ask for more support in terms of services. Section 3 compares the Italian case with other cases in Northern Europe.

The concluding section shows the relationship between marginality and the availability of public goods. It contributes to the analysis of the relationship between social capital and development, showing that there is both a theoretical framework and evidence that justify the “principle” that public action supporting social capital has a major role in determining the performance of development strategies and actions.

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