Social Capital: Theories and Community Development Explained in Essay

This essay examines the concept of social capital and its critical role in community development. It defines social capital as the network of relationships and trust within a community, essential for economic growth, effective democracy, and individual well-being. The essay explores different types of social capital, including bonding, bridging, and linking, and discusses how community development is based on principles of human rights, social justice, and equality. The essay highlights the views of theorists like Putnam and Bourdieu, contrasting their perspectives on social capital's benefits and the importance of various forms of capital. It concludes that social capital, alongside human, financial, and environmental capital, is vital for community progress, fostering collaboration, trust, and effective decision-making. The essay also emphasizes the role of media in community development and the significance of social capital in creating a supportive environment for individuals and organizations.

Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
What is meant by the term ‘social capital’? Why might it be important for communities and
community development? In answering, draw on the ideas of at least two theorists.................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
References:.......................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
For communicating any news, idea or information to any society, there are various
channels which are to be used for this purpose. These channels of communication is known as
Media. It include various source i.e. radio, television, telephone, internet, fax, online and offline
newspapers, magazines etc. And when the communication is done on a huge level, it is said as
Mass Communication. Media is divided in various forms i.e. Print Media, Broadcast Media,
Outdoor or Out of Home Media and Internet. Community refers to the group of people in any
society with some similarities like country, town, religion, identity, customs etc. Being a part of
community is really beneficial. Support from others, influence, sharing information,
reinforcement, connection, passion are some benefits of being a part of community. This report
include the concept of Social Capital, importance of Social Capital for Communities and
community development. Along with this, it contain the view and definition of Social Capital by
Putnam and Bourdieu (theorists).
MAIN BODY
What is meant by the term ‘social capital’? Why might it be important for communities and
community development? In answering, draw on the ideas of at least two theorists.
Social Capital is an important element which leads to the profitability of any company. It
involve trust and faith among the employees working together in an organisation. In the term of
finance, it can be said that it include the values of social networks and relationships that
accomplish the economic capital for economic growth of an organisation. It helps in making the
healthy work environment at workplace(Ashtiani 2018). In simple words it can be said as the
Social Capital is the relation or network among the people or employees who are living and
working together in a specific society. It's main purpose is to secure economic capital, human
capital and effective democracy and economy for analysing the individuals in class competition,
individuals in family and community settings etc.
On the basis of network, Social Capital may be divided in three portion i.e. Bonding
Social Capital, Bridging Social Capital, Linking Social Capital and according to the social
structure, Structural, Cognitive and Relational Social Capital are different types of social capital
(Yan and et. al., 2019). Morality, Religion and morality, Law, economic and political system,
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environment building are various features of Social capital, which show it's importance in an
organisation.
Community Development is completely based on values of human rights, social justice,
equality and respect for diversity. Identifying problems or issues and taking decisions of action is
a long process which can be said as the process of Community Development. Collective action,
empowerment, self determination, working and learning together are the four principles of
Community Development practices. Objective of Community Development is help in planning,
involving villages in national reconstruction, political training, improving the living standard of
the people who are living in villages etc. It covers a broad rage of plans and programmes such as
youth development programme, Family life education, Communication, welfare of senior citizen,
Agricultural and allied activities. It is necessary to have a long term endeavour, well and
inclusive plan which will result in the benefit of community(Buck‐McFadyen and et. al., 2019).
It helps the members of community in becoming more responsible by organising and planning
together having healthy lifestyle option by empowering themselves for creating employment and
various economic opportunities. Also the communication plays an important role in making
social capital as the relation between various people of community can be establish by the way in
which the employer or leader speak or convey the information to their subordinates.
Social Capital alone can't do the complete development of community. Along with social
capital, others forms of capital are also needed which include environmental capital, physical
capital, human capital, financial capital etc. Social capital is just a process of doing work
together but human capital will help to complete any work. Human capital include labour supply,
skills, capabilities, experience etc. It is an intangible asset which can not be written in Balance
Sheet. The concept of recognizing the human capital defines the differences among the labour.
Specialisation and division of labour, education, vocational training, a climate of creativity, in
fracture, competitiveness will help the organisation to increase human capital. Human capital is
important in any organisation because it gives directly result on the economic growth and
increasing productivity in the firm (Saegert 2017). Environmental capital refers to natural
resources which can be renewable or non renewable found with in any country, it include air, oil,
plant etc. Physical capital include one important factor which is needed in the production of an
good i.e. Machinery,Computers, vehicles, office participatory etc. Financial capital are the
resources in terms of money which are used by the organisation for doing day to day activities
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and operations. Three primary financial capital are Debt, equity and speciality. It is important
for a business organisation to work with all these capital i.e. human capital, environmental
capital, physical capital, financial capital along with social capital for the smooth running of an
business organisation.
Social capital is important in the development of community as it has power to influence
the people to get the work done (Zelekha 2019). It gives the opportunity to the employees to
grow and improve their skills. If any of organisation is not taking Social capital as important
concept, they are missing the chance of doing improvement in their work and skills of
employees.
It is a process under which value, norms, trust are exchange in a community. Not only in
any working organisation, it plays an important role in the society, political system, economy,
institutions. It also result in the development of of religion, public health, business performance,
educational attainment etc.
Social capital helps the community to coordinate with all the members or people of
society or community while taking any decision or action related to complete community. And it
is also necessary for all the people to make complete trust on the community member that all the
decisions taken by their members are beneficial for all of them otherwise it can create various
conflicts among them(Castillo 2019). Social Capital shows the goals and targets clearly to their
community and reduce the chances of disorders and disputes. It also create the unity among the
people of community which will result in the successfully completing of all the assigned tasks.
In corporate world, community development refers to the development of employees
working in a same team as team members or leaders or supervisors. Social Capital help the
community in doing best performance by setting targets and taking right decision at right time
which helps them to reach on the desired results. It also make a relationship of coordination
between the employees with in organisation. It creates a helping culture in organisation as well
through which employees understand each other and always being ready to help others which
will help the organisation in maintaining the good environment and culture at work place.
According to the structure of capital, Pierre Bourdieu gives the differences between
economic capital, cultural capital and social capital(Larsson and et. al., 2019). According to him
collection of actual and future resources which are linked to the ownership of a durable network
of high or less allocated relationships of mutual contact and identification can be defined as
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Social Capital. This concept of social capital is an instrumental concept which do focus on the
advantages or benefits to employer or master of social capital and intended construction of
sociability by taking in mind the purpose of creating this resource. This theory is doing a small
opposition to Putnam's positive view of social capital. He employs the concept to display a
structure for creating duplication of inequality. Thus, Bourdieu point out that, to maintain the
advantages for organisation itself, their social class, they have to use old boys network or any
other social capital in a wealthy and powerful way.
Putnam compared social capital as a public good – the amount of civic orientation,
associating potential, trust in other employees which are in different cities, states or countries.
He completely differentiate social capital from the theory of Bourdieu and Coleman's. He stands
somewhere in the middle of above mentioned both theorists(Flôr and et. al., 2018). He focus on
the potential culture of modern society. He stated that social capital is the amount of features of
social organisations that helps in the smooth functioning and coordination for the common and
mutual benefit. Trust, networks, norms are some features of social organisation which Putnam
was talking about, while defining social capital. Putnam had followed some facts of brief of
Coleman which stated that the the social capital is a status that can be a assistant of interpersonal
teamwork(Hartlieb and et. al. 2020). This type of feature can be observed important trait to such
a degree that it can become consequently similarities across cities, regions and various countries.
Putnam present this theory by the collaboration of Bourdieu and Coleman's theory defining
various factors related to social capital.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is concluded that media plays an important role in the society in
providing information, education, entertainment, advancement and correlation of parts in society.
Now a days media is doing doing work on mass level which helps the people to get the various
information about a lots of things. Also media is compared with mirror of modern society. Along
with the positive impact on society, they also have negative impact, mainly on the youth
generation. Furthermore, it is analysed that social capital plays it's role only with the help of
finance capital, human capital, physical capital. Social capital establish any leader in any
organisation or community by creating a strong team by natural networking and trust on each
other which result in the development of community. Above mentioned two theories of social
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capital i.e. Putnam and Bourdieu theories states the various aspects of social capital by focusing
on some factors such as trust, Coordination, Cooperation etc. In simple words it can be said that
creating an environment of help and trust in any community is known as the social capital which
leads in the development of community.
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References:
Books and Journals
Ashtiani, M. and Feliciano, C., 2018. Access and mobilization: How social capital relates to low-
income youth’s postsecondary educational (PSE) attainment. Youth & Society, 50(4),
pp.439-461.
Buck‐McFadyen and et. al., 2019. Social capital and self‐rated health: A cross‐sectional study of
the general social survey data comparing rural and urban adults in Ontario. Health &
social care in the community, 27(2), pp.424-436.
Castillo, R.P., 2019. Exploring the differential effects of social and individualistic gameplay
motivations on bridging social capital for users of a massively multiplayer online
game. Computers in Human Behavior, 91, pp.263-270.
Flôr and et. al., 2018. What is the association between social capital and diabetes mellitus? A
systematic review. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research &
Reviews, 12(4), pp.601-605.
Hartlieb and et. al. 2020. Does community social capital affect asymmetric cost
behaviour?. Management Accounting Research, 46, p.100640.
Larsson and et. al., 2019. Sharing my way to success: A case study on developing
entrepreneurial ventures using social capital in an OSS community. Information and
Organization, 29(1), pp.23-40.
Saegert, S. and Carpiano, R.M., 2017. Social support and social capital: A theoretical synthesis
using community psychology and community sociology approaches.
Yan and et. al., 2019. Social capital and knowledge contribution in online user communities:
One-way or two-way relationship?. Decision Support Systems, 127, p.113131.
Zelekha, Y. and Dana, L.P., 2019. Social capital versus cultural capital determinants of
entrepreneurship: an empirical study of the African continent. The Journal of
Entrepreneurship, 28(2), pp.250-269.
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