Social capital – energy necessary for common activities

Networking is crucial for success 

In this issue of the Civic World we discuss the meaning of the term Social capital, starting from its meaning, the place where it can be seen and the effects of its application.

Social capital is an analogy of financial capital. It is a fund of resources that are at individual’s disposal and enable “moving” through the personal and professional net. This fund consists of good will, cooperation, trust, information, emotional support, power and influence (Robert Kramer, American University, Washington).

This definition best depicts the nature of the social capital, that is, implies that it is actually the energy that moves us as individuals to do a common activity with other people.

If we compare with the human capital that refers to how much the individual knows and can do (knowledge, skills, experience and training), the social capital refers to the size and diversity of the individual’s personal and professional relations.

The basic premise of the social capital is that networking is very important for success. More precisely, social capital refers to the collective values of all “social nets” and the relations that are made while doing common things in the net. Social capital means something more than a nice and warm feeling of friendship and commonness. It is also trust, reciprocity, information and cooperation in the net, as well as a process where norms and values are created.

The term “social” means that the resources are not owned by one person and they cannot be found inside the net, in the people’s common relations.

The term “capital” means that it is about something productive, that same as the financial capital, provides creating values, working and achieving personal and organizational objectives.

By facilitating coordinated activities, social capital enables improvement of the individual’s efficiency, family, organization, community, civic society.  


Visibility of the social capital

When the neighbors informally look after their neighbor’s house, who is away; when in a community people make a deal and build a water-supply system; when electronic messages are exchanged between the members of a cancer-supporting group - it is social capital in action.

We can find social capital between a group of friends, in the neighborhood, in churches, in clubs, in the civic organizations, even in the restaurants. The motto of the famous coffee bar from the TV series “Cheers” is: “Everyone knows your name”. This sentence best depicts the most important aspect of the social capital (according to Robert Putnam, Bowling alone, 1995).


Achieving results

For the individual, the social capital enables a happier private life, more efficient performance of the working tasks, possibilities for a better and more substantial job, higher salary.

For the organization, the social capital provides exchange of good ideas and use of the organization’s good practices, easier access to the financial and material capital, employees’ loyalty, more effective strategies for amalgamating with other organizations.

For the community, the social capital can influence the decrease of problems (e.g. violence) through strengthening the values and norms of behavior, improvement of the infrastructure, business-opportunities increase, through access to credits and grants.

The civic society consists of groups and organizations, formal and informal, that independently from the state and the market perform to promote various interests in the society. The social capital, informal relations and trust that unites people to take actions, are the base for the success of each civic organization, promotion of the economic development and welfare, exchange of resources, skills and experiences. The most important for the civic organizations is that the social capital provides participation, cooperation, exchange of information, forming coalitions etc., in order to achieve the citizens’ common interests.

 

Concept page

Social capital is an informal norm that promotes cooperation between two or more individuals (Francis Fukuyama, 1999).

Social capital points to the norms and nets that provide a collective action (World Bank).

Social capital refers to the shapes of social organization, as trust, norms, networking, thus improving the society’s efficiency by facilitating a coordinated action (Putnam, 1993).