In more detail
Social capital is the links, networks, values, language, social institutions and understandings we share that make it possible to work, plan and make better lives together. Neighbourhoods with high levels of social capital tend to be seen as better places to live.
Other Kinds of Wealth
We are used to hearing and thinking about wealth only in terms of economic wealth – which is made up of tangible things people can own like houses, cars, foreign holidays or shares in companies. Economic wealth, however, accounts for a small part of our total wealth. Other sorts of wealth include:
- the environment – fresh air, water, ecosystems and biodiversity etc. No one ‘owns’ these things. People have been exploiting the environment and extending property rights over it in order to make economic wealth from it for thousands of years, but most of it remains in common. Having a beautiful and wholesome environment is something we can buy and sell the right to, but we don’t just take care of the environment in order to make money?
- human capital – intelligence, strength, health, skills, ideas and learning. We do own these things in a sense. Some can be translated into economic value (through employment or inventing things for example), but most of the things that are in our heads, for example, are to do with other aspects of life, not work. We want to be healthy and wise to enjoy life, not just to work for money?
- social capital – is like a cross between the two above. It is shared intelligence, skills etc arising from our relationships with other people and social institutions. Like the environment, social capital is stuff we share: no one can ‘own’ it. Like human capital, it involves things that you can’t put your hand on. Being social makes us better off, but we want to be social to enjoy life, not just to make money?
Every person, household, business, neighbourhood and nation, has their own stocks of each of these four types of wealth. We bring them together in different ways to make well-being and draw benefit from them. We invest in them to provide opportunities for ourselves and future generations. We try to keep a balance of them – both personally and as businesses or neighbourhoods etc. (if any of the four types of wealth was missing, life would be unpleasant and short).
Counting Social Capital
Social capital matters when you are thinking about community planning, because:
- planning is all about keeping a good balance between the different sorts of wealth; making sure people can benefit fairly from that wealth; and enabling investment in the future wealth and well-being of a place
- a community plan is in itself a valuable piece of social capital
- the act of community planning represents joint investment in neighbourhood social capital
- making a success of community planning depends on using the social capital you have in your neighbourhood effectively.
Social capital is everything to do with the relationships between people that makes it easier to work, plan and make better lives together. Looking at a neighbourhood, you might include:
- friendship and social links – from relationships within households, to knowing the local beat sergeant or headteacher, to who you smile at in the street or make conversation with at a bus stop.
- networks – the things which enable people to ‘know someone who knows someone’ – you don’t have to know everyone personally to be part of a neighbourhood network.
- values – vary from place to place and relate, for example, to what is considered ‘social’ and what is thought of a ‘anti-social’.
- the language we use – like values, the language we use can divide as well as unite us. Even in a neighbourhood, there are many different ways we use to communicate with different people.
- our social institutions – the clubs, societies, associations, faith groups on one hand; and things like meeting places, the neighbourhood tasking group, what happens on Friday night, who puts the Christmas lights up and the idea of the ‘High Street’ and the backstreets.
- understandings we share – who we are as public, social beings; how we present ourselves and how we understand others; local politics, alliances and rivalries; expectations and shared hopes.
The communities that make this neighbourhood social capital extend both across and beyond the neighbourhood. In urban neighbourhoods in particular, people are likely to travel across neighbourhood boundaries; to work and use services in different places; have friends and networks in other places; speak languages shared outside the place we live.
The social capital of your neighbourhood isn’t just made up by what is shared in it, but also by what is shared beyond it, with other neighbourhoods and the town, city and region of which it is part.
Bridging and bonding
Thinking about the social capital created and shared by a community, people sometimes divide it into two sorts:
- bridging – which is links from the community to others
- bonding - which is links within the community.
These two types of social capital have different effects:
- bridging links help you influence others and to work in co-operation
- bonding links help you take cohesive action yourself and act more competitively.
Neighbourhood communities need both bridging and bonding social capital in order to plan and do together to make a better place to live.
| Key Facts:
Social capital is the links between people. It can be used to generate wealth - both economic wealth and social well-being and should be taken into account in community planning. A review of neighbourhood social capital might reveal ways of making your neighbourhood a better place to live. Some communities have strong 'bonding' social capital (which holds them together) but weak 'bridging' social capital (which links them to other communities and opportunities). Linking relatively isolated communities can create benefits for the whole neighbourhood. |
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BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-06-16 13:55:01 | by: admin | status: f published |