IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rsocec/v60y2002i1p1-21.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is Social Capital Really Capital?

Author

Listed:
  • Lindon Robison
  • A. Allan Schmid
  • Marcelo Siles

Abstract

Social capital has emerged as a paradigm capable of bridging across various social science disciplines. However, its adoption by social scientists from different disciplines has led to multiple and often conflicting definitions. Besides conflicting definitions, some social scientists have argued that social capital lacks the properties of capital and should be called something other than capital. This paper resolves many of the problems created by conflicting definitions by pointing out that the differences have arisen primarily because scientists have included in the definition expressions of its possible uses, where it resides, and how its service capacity can be changed. This paper argues that these applications of social capital should not be included in its definition. This paper also defends the social capital paradigm against the claim that it lacks capital-like properties by pointing out that social capital, when defined as sympathy, has many important capital-like properties including transformation capacity, durability, flexibility, substitutability, opportunities for decay (maintenance), reliability, ability to create other capital forms, and investment (disinvestment) opportunities. Finally, this paper compares social capital to other forms of capital including cultural capital and human capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Lindon Robison & A. Allan Schmid & Marcelo Siles, 2002. "Is Social Capital Really Capital?," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(1), pages 1-21.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:60:y:2002:i:1:p:1-21
    DOI: 10.1080/00346760110127074
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00346760110127074
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00346760110127074?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baron, James N & Hannan, Michael T, 1994. "The Impact of Economics on Contemporary Sociology," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 1111-1146, September.
    2. Thorstein Veblen, 1908. "On the Nature of Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 517-542.
    3. Emery N. Castle, 1998. "A Conceptual Framework for the Study of Rural Places," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 80(3), pages 621-631.
    4. Thorstein Veblen, 1908. "On the Nature of Capital: Investment, Intangible Assets, and the Pecuniary Magnate," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 104-136.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fragkandreas, Thanos & Larsen, Karin, 2009. "Social Capital and Economic Performance: some lessons from Farm Partnerships in Sweden," MPRA Paper 17916, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Waldstrøm, Christian & Svendsen, Gunnar Lind Haase, 2008. "On the capitalization and cultivation of social capital: Towards a neo-capital general science?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1495-1514, August.
    3. Hugh Rockoff, 2008. "Great Fortunes of the Gilded Age," NBER Working Papers 14555, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Nitzan, Jonathan & Bichler, Shimshon, 2019. "CasP's 'Differential Accumulation' versus Veblen's 'Differential Advantage' (Revised and Expanded)," Working Papers on Capital as Power 2019/01, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism.
    5. Robison, Lindon J. & Siles, Marcelo E. & Schmid, A. Allan, 2002. "Social Capital And Poverty Reduction: Toward A Mature Paradigm," Agricultural Economic Report Series 10941, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    6. Giorgos Argitis, 2013. "Veblenian and Minskian financial markets," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 10(1), pages 28-43.
    7. Davanzati, Guglielmo Forges, 2018. "Structural change driven by institutions: Thorstein veblen revised," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 105-110.
    8. Nitzan, Jonathan, 1992. "Inflation As Restructuring. A Theoretical and Empirical Account of the U.S. Experience," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 157989, February.
    9. Bichler, Shimshon & Nitzan, Jonathan, 2018. "CasP's 'Differential Accumulation' versus Veblen's 'Differential Advantage'," Working Papers on Capital as Power 2018/08, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism.
    10. Rikap, Cecilia & Flacher, David, 2020. "Who collects intellectual rents from knowledge and innovation hubs? questioning the sustainability of the singapore model," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 59-73.
    11. Guglielmo Forges Davanzati, 2016. "Thorstein Veblen on the nature of the firm and income distribution," Working Papers PKWP1618, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    12. Robison, Lindon J. & Myers, Robert J. & Siles, Marcelo E., 1999. "Social Capital, The Terms Of Trade, And The Distribution Of Income," Staff Paper Series 11546, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    13. Mouré, Christopher, 2021. "Costly Efficiencies: Health Care Spending, COVID-19, and the Public/Private Health Care Debate," Working Papers on Capital as Power 2021/05, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism.
    14. Dolfsma, W.A., 2006. "IPRs, Technological Development, and Economic Development," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2006-004-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    15. Pisani, Elena, 2007. "L'evoluzione della ruralità nei Paesi in via di sviluppo (PVS). Approcci teorici ed applicativi [Evolution of rurality in Developing Countries (DCs). Theoretical and applied Approaches]," MPRA Paper 27732, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Miranowski, John A. & Monchuk, Daniel C., 2004. "Spatial Labor Markets and Technology Spillovers - Analysis from the US Midwest," Working Papers 18224, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    17. Gary Bosworth & Hanne Bat Finke, 2020. "Commercial Counterurbanisation: A driving force in rural economic development," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(3), pages 654-674, May.
    18. Castle, Emery N., 2000. "The Economics Of Rural Places And Agricultural Economics," 2000 Annual Meeting, June 29-July 1, 2000, Vancouver, British Columbia 36361, Western Agricultural Economics Association.
    19. Thomas E. Chamberlain, 1998. "On the psychological basis of economics and social psychology," ERSA conference papers ersa98p396, European Regional Science Association.
    20. Lise, Wietze, 2000. "Factors influencing people's participation in forest management in India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 379-392, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:60:y:2002:i:1:p:1-21. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RRSE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.