Reassessing the concept of 'social capital': considering resources for satisfying the needs of rural communities

Jaco Vermaak

Development Southern Africa, 2009, vol. 26, issue 3, 399-412

Abstract: This article reassesses the concept of 'social capital'. Against the background of existing theoretical views, as well as several points of critique, it reconceptualises the concept in terms of its ability to satisfy needs at various levels of society. It puts forward two arguments: first, that looking at a community's resources from the theoretical perspective of social capital gives a better understanding of existing socio-economic processes; and, second, that such a perspective can help the researcher identify a number of further resources available to communities. The article develops a critique of existing social capital theory. It looks at how appropriate the concept is to the situation of rural communities in the developing world, and suggests that a resource-oriented social capital is a promising and appropriate concept for inclusion in development efforts.

Keywords: Social capital; needs; resources; rural communities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03768350903086770 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:deveza:v:26:y:2009:i:3:p:399-412

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CDSA20

DOI: 10.1080/03768350903086770

Access Statistics for this article

Development Southern Africa is currently edited by Marie Kirsten

More articles in Development Southern Africa from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().