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Social Capital and Communities of Place 1
Author(s) -
Flora Jan L.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
rural sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.083
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1549-0831
pISSN - 0036-0112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1549-0831.1998.tb00689.x
Subject(s) - embeddedness , social capital , social reproduction , individual capital , collective action , sociology , solidarity , social engagement , agency (philosophy) , social mobility , field (mathematics) , positive economics , economic capital , economic growth , economic system , economics , political science , social science , human capital , politics , mathematics , pure mathematics , law
Abstract This paper develops a framework for examining the questions: Does social capital make a difference for well being in communities of place? How might rural sociologists utilize social capital to further well being in communities? The author reviews social capital literature, contrasting rational choice and embeddedness perspectives. Opting for a marriage between embeddedness and conflict theory, he introduces entrepreneurial social infrastructure (ESI) as an alternative to social capital. ESI adds to social capital the notions of equality, inclusion, and agency. Research results are presented which support the embeddedness approach: community‐level action (the community field) is not simply an aggregation of individual or organizational actions within the community; social capital and ESI contribute jointly and independently to community action. Examining economic development as a form of collective action, the author concludesthe following: a) ESI contributes to economic development, and b) inclusiveness (internal solidarity) is more closely related to community self‐development while industrial recruitment is better predicted by strong external ties.