What's wrong with social capital? Critiques from social science

Abstract

Few would deny the fact that social capital has been one of the most frequently utilized terminologies in academic journals over the past 20 years. According to Woolcock (2010), the term social capital was cited as frequently as political parties in 2008. The list of citations covers most major academic fi elds including economics, political science, sociology, social psychology, business administration, education, and, the theme of this volume, social epidemiology. Two books with the same title, Handbook of Social Capital, one by Castiglione and another by Svendsen, were published in 2008 and in 2009, respectively. The concept of social capital has drawn the attention of policy makers as well. Robert Putnam, author of Making Democracy Work and Bowling Alone, bestsellers in the fi eld of social capital research, was invited to France in 2008 by Nicolas Sarkozy, the then French president, as a member of the commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress. The commission, which was organized by Sarkozy and co-chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, and Jean-Paul Fitoussi, published a report titled Mis-measuring Our Lives in 2010. The report referred to social connections or social capital as an essential element of quality of life.