ABSTRACT
Economic and social systems at all levels – from farms and livelihoods to communities and national economies – rely for their success on the value of the services that flow from the total stock of assets that they control. Five types of capital – natural, human, physical, financial and social – are now being addressed in the literature. Much of the recent thinking on types of capital has been prompted by the ‘discovery’ of social capital, which has built a bridge between economists and other social scientists. 1 While there has been intuitive understanding of social capital for many years, ambiguities in its conceptualization and measurement kept this non-material factor of production off development agendas until recently, despite its important material consequences. Now that it is clearly on the agenda, social and other scientists will find it a useful expansion upon previous analytical and policy thinking. The five types can be described briefly as follows.
