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Is Social Capital a Good Concept?

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  • Christian Bjørnskov
  • Kim Sønderskov

Abstract

This paper explores whether the concept of social capital as popularized by Robert Putnam is a good social science concept. Taking Gerring’s work on concept evaluation as the starting point, the paper first presents a set of criteria for conceptual ‘goodness’ and discusses how social capital performs on these criteria. It is argued that social capital eventually may be a good concept if it can be shown empirically to be a unidimensional concept. An empirical section therefore explores the validity of the unidimensionality assumption and rejects it in four separate tests at both the individual and aggregate level. We conclude that even if social capital has been a remarkably productive idea, it is not a good concept as most popular conceptualizations define social capital as several distinct phenomena or as phenomena that already have been conceptualized under other labels. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Bjørnskov & Kim Sønderskov, 2013. "Is Social Capital a Good Concept?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(3), pages 1225-1242, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:114:y:2013:i:3:p:1225-1242
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-012-0199-1
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    6. Bjornskov, Christian & Bogetic, Zeljko & Hillman, Arye & Popovic, Milenko, 2014. "Trust and Identity in a Small, Post-Socialist, Post-Crisis Society," EconStor Preprints 95968, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    7. Carola Hommerich & Tim Tiefenbach, 2018. "Analyzing the Relationship Between Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Social Affiliation," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1091-1114, April.
    8. Jiawen Huang & Yitong Fang, 2021. "Income Inequality, Neighbourhood Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being in China: Exploration of a Moderating Effect," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-18, June.
    9. Isabel Neira & Maricruz Lacalle-Calderon & Marta Portela & Manuel Perez-Trujillo, 2019. "Social Capital Dimensions and Subjective Well-Being: A Quantile Approach," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(8), pages 2551-2579, December.
    10. Isabel Neira & Fernando Bruna & Marta Portela & Adela García-Aracil, 2018. "Individual Well-Being, Geographical Heterogeneity and Social Capital," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1067-1090, April.
    11. Christan Bjørnskov & Miguel Ángel Borrella‐Mas & Martin Rode, 2022. "The economics of change and stability in social trust: Evidence from (and for) Catalan secession," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 275-297, July.
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    13. Jan Kozłowski, 2015. "Innovation indices: the need for positioning them where they properly belong," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 104(3), pages 609-628, September.
    14. Niklas Potrafke & Felix Roesel, 2022. "Online Versus Offline: Which Networks Spur Protests?," CESifo Working Paper Series 9969, CESifo.
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