Premium
Personal social capital and voluntary participation in the Village Development Programme in rural Sri Lanka
Author(s) -
Hulugalla Niranjala,
Yamada Kyohei,
Kakinaka Makoto
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.3547
Subject(s) - social capital , voluntary association , social engagement , turnover , sri lanka , economic growth , socioeconomics , nature versus nurture , social status , capital (architecture) , political science , economics , sociology , geography , management , archaeology , anthropology , law , tanzania
This study examines whether voluntary participation in the Village Development Programme in rural Sri Lanka promotes personal social capital. We use an original survey of 595 households in six rural villages in Kalutara district, Sri Lanka, and apply matching methods. The analysis finds a positive effect of voluntary participation on personal social capital. However, once we consider the degree of participation by classifying participants into nominal and active participants, status changes from nonparticipants to nominal participants nurture personal social capital, but status changes from nominal to active participants fail to enhance personal social capital. Our findings suggest that increasing the level of participation does not necessarily contribute to social capital development in a linear way because active participation may bring about not just positive features—such as frequent interactions with others or experiences of successful collaboration—but also conflict among community members.