Social capital
Social capital refers to the value derived from social relationships and networks, which can yield productive benefits for individuals and communities. This concept emphasizes the importance of social interactions and cooperation, often manifested in collective efforts, such as labor sharing in agricultural settings or charitable organizations supporting those in need. As societies have evolved, particularly with the rise of capitalism, social capital has gained recognition as a crucial input alongside traditional economic factors like land and labor.
In contemporary contexts, social capital is leveraged in various industries, including tourism, where the display of authentic social interactions can attract visitors and generate revenue. However, concerns about authenticity can arise when these interactions are commodified. Additionally, organizations may cultivate social capital to enhance workplace solidarity and boost productivity, particularly noted in East Asian companies. The interplay between social capital and market forces can also lead to tensions, as some communities resist commercialization that threatens their social fabric. Lastly, the advent of the Internet has transformed social capital, offering both opportunities for connection through social networks and risks of creating insular communities that reinforce narrow perspectives.
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Subject Terms
Social capital
Social relations refers to the ways that people as individuals or as members of groups interact with each other. For example, in agricultural communities, people often join together to volunteer their labor for an activity that a single household cannot manage, such as building a barn. Organizations based on philanthropy and charitable giving are also forms of social relations that have the benefit of providing support for those who need it. Social relations may also involve an exchange among individuals, such as a dowry offered for a marriage or a baker offering space in a working oven during a period of spare capacity. Economic models that focus on the basic inputs of land, labor, and capital are insufficient to explain many contemporary commercial activities. Thus, a new form of input called social capital, which is defined as social relations that have productive benefits, has been added to many economic models.
Overview
Social relations are generally developed in pre- or early capitalist societies, and their principal goal is not commercial in nature. However, as capitalism has spread around the world, more effort has been expended on raising money from such activities. In the tourism industry, for example, destination development has commonly focused on identifying interesting and picturesque examples of social capital in action as a potential means of attracting more tourists. These tourists can either pay a fee to witness or participate in the social relations displayed or else tour operators can rely on them purchasing additional services such as accommodation or food and beverages to bring more revenue into the area. In these cases, there may be issues relating to authenticity if tourists come to believe that what they are witnessing is not the genuine representation of the social relations as they have developed in the past. Employers have also sought to generate more forms of social capital as a means of promoting social solidarity with a view to raising productivity and maintaining quality assurance. Such efforts are commonly associated with companies in East Asia.
In addition to its role as income generator, social capital may be used as a means of resisting the spread of market capitalism into every aspect of daily life. For example, many communities have protested the spread of the infrastructure of commercialism if they believe this will have a negative impact upon their quality of life.
Some people believe that the introduction of commercial arrangements into spheres of action that were not previously organized along such lines will lead to the dissolution of social capital. When a factory is built in a rural community, for instance, rural workers who are employed there may earn enough money to buy goods for their families, but the worker is no longer available to provide emotional and domestic labor in the household. Thus, the social status of such a person might change. These effects tend to be stronger in the case of women than men.
The rise of the internet has also affected social capital in both positive and negative ways. Social networking sites such as Facebook provide users with readily available social communities that can be tailored to specific interests or groups. In this way, social networks increase social capital. However, because social networks can be narrowed into groups of people that essentially align themselves within the same cultural parameters—be it ethnicity, religious beliefs, or avocational interests—a solipsistic identity can form, in which the social network both creates and drives a narrow point of view.
Bibliography
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