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Exploring social capital in rural settlements of an islander region in Greece
Author(s) -
Zissi Anastasia,
Tseloni Andromachi,
Skapinakis Petros,
Savvidou Maria,
Chiou Mihaela
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of community and applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.042
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1099-1298
pISSN - 1052-9284
DOI - 10.1002/casp.1024
Subject(s) - social capital , sociology , sense of community , rural settlement , mainstream , rural area , social psychology , gender studies , socioeconomics , social science , psychology , political science , law
This paper reports on a large scale cross‐sectional study examining subjective perceptions of community social life held by a randomly selected sample of residents ( n = 428) in all small rural settings ( n = 89) of the region of North Aegean Sea. The notion of social capital was used as a conceptual tool in order to explore different aspects of the relational life of contemporary rural communities. This study has two aims: First to provide an account of rural residents' perceptions of village life in terms of interpersonal support, mutual aid, trust, social cohesion and community competence, and second to examine the suitability of the social capital notion within the specific cultural context. A combination of data collection procedures and a range of sources were employed, such as key informants, rural residents and researchers' field observations. The findings indicate that small farming communities of high devotion with deep roots and strong sense of belonging face severe demographic imbalance and experience low civic power given the limited links with external agents. The mainstream notion of social capital as an unconditionally beneficial factor is thus questioned. The findings call for revisiting its relevance across communities with varying capacities and needs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.