Social capital and its popularity
Denise Thompson
Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW
Contact Email:   d.thompsonunsw.edu.au

The concept of 'social capital' has met with huge success among governmental agencies, including governments themselves at all levels and transnational entities such as the OECD and the World Bank, as well as NGOs, academics, policy analysts, etc., in short, any and every institution concerned with or about the well-being of populations. And yet the concept has been subjected to a critique so devastating that it is difficult to understand why it has been so popular. The proposed paper will take a brief look at the extent of the spread of the notion of 'social capital', and then go on to investigate a number of the reasons given in the literature for its popularity. These reasons are both admiring (e.g. it broadens our understanding of community well-being beyond the economic - ABS), and critical (e.g. 'a sort of capital- and capitalism-fetishism, by analogy with commodity fetishism, reigns supreme' - Ben Fine). The paper will conclude by suggesting that the question of why 'social capital' continues to prevail, despite its dubious epistemological status, can most usefully be explored by asking who stands to benefit (if anyone) from its continued usage.

Paper Download Information (if available):

Thompson_46.pdf

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