ABSTRACT
Gary Becker has also been in the vanguard in deploying the notion of social capital. Because the social capital allows Becker to accommodate an even wider range of economic and social phenomena whilst retaining a continuing commitment to methodological individualism or economic rationality. In effect, social capital becomes a catch-all for anything that improves life but that has not already been covered by those elements of personal capital that provide the starting point for understanding capital. Educational sociologists used social capital to explain why some kids do better at school than others. Social capital explanations of school outcomes, particularly of the school outcomes of immigrant children and children of immigrants, have come into wide use in recent years. James Coleman was concerned with ways in which family background may shape students' achievement. Social capital is examined at the individual level, using survey data collected in Kobe, Japan. Robert Putnam distinguishes social capital into bonding social capital and bridging social capital.
