ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on recent theoretical work in social capital to show how a certain type of urban poverty and 'urban social poverty' is best explained in terms of such a normative constraint or set of constraints. It uses contemporary social capital theory to sketch a conception of urban social poverty and to consider the problems such poverty poses for city life. The chapter explains distinguish between horizontal social capital and vertical social. It argues that urban social poverty is scarcity of vertical social capital. The chapter focuses on middle and upper class fortified enclaves of So Paulo, middle class African-American community of urban Baltimore, Maryland, and Roma groups of Central Europe with a brief consideration of a boxing club in historically Roma district of Prague. It suggests that reducing urban social poverty requires both a bottom-up approach towards creation of vertical social capital and a top-down approach aimed at the diversification of existing stores of horizontal social capital.
