ABSTRACT
One of the most controversial issues about social capital is how it is formed. Many scholars agree that trust itself ‘lubricates’ cooperation and that cooperation, in turn, promotes trust (Putnam 1993:171). This model of the origins of social capital derives from Coleman (1988 and 1990) and his rational-choice approach, according to which of the elements that form social capital are mutually self-reinforcing. This interactive process can only reach two equilibria, a low-intensity one (lack of social capital) and a high-intensity one (a community of civicness).
