ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the conceptual pathways associated with endogenous and exogenous social capital and the role leisure plays in these processes. Social capital, “the consequence of investment in and cultivation of social relationships allowing an individual access to resources that would otherwise be unavailable to him or her” (Glover et al., 2005, p. 87), can be endogenous insofar as it originates from within leisure-based social networks or exogenous insofar as it derives from sources outside of immediate social networks. The endogenous pathway to social capital shows how tangible, more durable relationships produce social capital, while the exogenous pathway shows how social capital arises in fleeting experiences among members of an imagined community. An exploration of these pathways reveals that leisure plays a direct role in the endogenous pathway by facilitating sociability, the context in which relationships are built, maintained, and sustained as sources of social capital. Leisure, however, simply represents one of many contexts in which exogenous social capital is produced. In fleshing out these social processes, the chapter aims to provide greater conceptual rigour to the literature on leisure and social capital.
