ABSTRACT
The contemporary literature on social capital has supported the conjecture that norms and networks of trust, reciprocity and cooperation contribute positively to economic development, social cohesion and democratic governance. Critical views of social capital claim that the literature overlooks the role of power relations, hierarchical structures and social inequalities, which are reflected in and sustained through social norms and networks, and which fail to enhance individual and community welfare (for an overview, see Christoforou 2013). Some of these authors point to the much neglected work of Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002), a French sociologist, who has used the concept of social capital, along with concepts of cultural and symbolic capital, to explain the reproduction of social structures. Critics often turn to Bourdieu’s radical conceptions of social capital, whereby social networks transmit various forms of capital and credit (social obligations) among their members and thus endow them with the interests, strategies and powers to reproduce social hierarchies and inequalities.
