Re-Interpreting Social Capital – A Political Hijack Or Useful Structural Concept In Community Regeneration?

Brooks K¹*

1. Dept. of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

While social capital has undoubtedly enjoyed renewed popularity in recent years, the majority of the debate has been about the applicability of different theorist’s perspectives of social capital, in terms of developing measurement tools. This paper argues that the current dominant approach obscures the importance of identifying the political objective in using the concept. The majority of current social capital dialogue ignores its political objectives; a major motivator in its popularity in the United States, United Kingdom and now Australia.

This paper re casts the concept of social capital into a neo liberal and a social democratic perspective. This is done through analysing the common elements of different interpretations of the concept, classifying them into the categories of a ‘bounded’ (neo liberal) and ‘unbounded’ (social democratic) perspective. Utilising empirical research from two NSW rural towns, the paper discusses the nature of social capital and how it reflects upon the political perspectives put forward, identifying the variation in role played by the three levels of government in two communities of differing economic success. This research draws upon quantitative and qualitative data collected in 2004 to assess the bounded and unbounded aspects of social capital in two communities. The research indicates that where there is increased interplay between ‘community’ and government resulting in higher levels of active democracy, social capital is also higher.

Lastly, the paper comments on the implications of the political re-interpretation of social capital on the assessment of social capital and subsequent development of rural Australian policy.

Click here to view the full paper