Social capital: Reviewing the concept and its policy implications

Social capital: Reviewing the concept and its policy implications

Commission research paper

This paper was released on 25 July 2003.

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Social capital is an evolving concept. It relates to the social norms, networks and trust that facilitate cooperation within or between groups.

Social capital can generate benefits to society by reducing transaction costs, promoting cooperative behaviour, diffusing knowledge and innovations, and through enhancements to personal well-being and associated spill-overs.

Some aspects of social capital can have adverse effects, such as when strong internal group cohesion is associated with intolerance of others.

Governments already undertake many functions that implicitly aim to support or enhance social capital. However, some government programs and regulations risk inadvertently eroding social capital.

Whereas devising policies to create social capital generally is problematic, governments should at least consider the scope for modifying policies that are found to damage social capital, and ways of harnessing existing social capital to deliver programs more effectively.

At present, there is limited understanding of social capital and how different policies interact with it, and measurement is difficult. Further research, coupled with small-scale policy experimentation, may be warranted to provide better knowledge and tools for incorporating social capital considerations in policy analysis where appropriate.