ABSTRACT
This nal chapter draws together the threads that have been followed in this book.1 Although the research brief has been wide, here we summarise the principal lessons and outline the benets of examining rural development from the perspective of social capital and networks. But rather than dening the central tenets of social capital at the outset, we have preferred to explore how different social dynamics in rural Europe can exist alongside each other. Various aspects of the concept of social capital can be used to describe them. As a result, our ‘story’ of social capital is one of variety, and the lesson is that social capital is not a single solution to development problems. We have found that social capital is best understood as a metaphor for the qualities of some social relationships that allow other benets to be secured through them. An awareness of social capital is thus an awareness of the process of development. It is at this conceptual level that these conclusions are, for the most part, pitched. The qualitative methodologies adopted by the research teams have enabled a depth of explanation for how remote rural areas are dealing with the changing political, economic and social circumstances that they face.
