ABSTRACT
Social capital: the operationalisation of the concept for local development As earlier chapters have indicated, the roots of the concept of social capital can be traced to the work of Putnam (1993), Coleman (1990) and Bourdieu (1986). Whilst Putnam’s focus, coming as it does from the angle of political science, focuses upon shared norms and values which facilitate coordinated actions, the view of Coleman and Bourdieu share greater similarity, with a perspective centred upon the more structural features of networks and ties and the social resources that they enable access to. Such a broad division is helpful for understanding the dilemmas confronting researchers trying to operationalise the concept of social capital as we shall demonstrate. For instance Stolle and Lewis argue that:
There is . . . a strong contrast between Putnam’s narrow view of social capital and Coleman’s wide definition . . . Coleman developed a much more inclusive and less focused understanding of social capital, whereas Putnam’s narrowness and selection of certain aspects of social relations that matter, such as participation in horizontal associations, and generalized values of trust and reciprocity make his formulation of the concept more measurable, testable, and potentially easier to operationalize. . . . Coleman’s conceptualization, on the other hand, must be understood in its context and specific situation, which makes it harder to generalize and utilize in empirical investigations.
