Social capital is a principal concept across the social sciences and has
readily entered into mainstream discourse. In short, it is popular.
However, this popularity has taken its toll. Social capital suffers from
a lack of consensus because of the varied ways it is measured, defined,
and deployed by different researchers. It has been put to work in ways
that stretch and confuse its conceptual value, blurring the lines
between networks, trust, civic engagement, and any type of collaborative
action.
This clear and concise volume presents the diverse theoretical
approaches of scholars from Marx, Coleman, and Bourdieu to Putnam,
Fukuyama, and Lin, carefully analyzing their commonalities and
differences. Joonmo Son categorizes this wealth of work according to
whether its focus is on the necessary preconditions for social capital,
its structural basis, or its production. He distinguishes between
individual and collective social capital (from shared resources of a
personal network to pooled assets of a whole society), and interrogates
the practical impact social capital has had in various policy areas
(from health to economic development).
Social Capital will be of immense value to readers across the social
sciences and practitioners in relevant fields seeking to understand this
mercurial concept.
