The Two Meanings of Social Capital

The popularity of the concept of social capital has been accompanied by increasing controversy about its actual meaning and effects. I consider here the alternative applications of the concept as an attribute of individuals vs. collectivities and discuss the extent to which causal propositions formu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSociological forum (Randolph, N.J.) Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 1 - 12
Main Author Portes, Alejandro
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Malden Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers 01.03.2000
Blackwell
Subjects
Academic achievement
Child rearing
Children
Communities
Community
Cultural Capital
Education
Educational Attainment
History, theory and methodology
Immigrants
Individual Collective Relationship
Individuals
Parents
Population education
School age children
Social capital
Socioeconomic status
Sociology
Theory
United States of America
Concept
Immigrant
Sociology
Family
Social network
Child
Social capital
Community
Meaning
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ISSN0884-8971
1573-7861
DOI10.1023/A:1007537902813

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Summary:The popularity of the concept of social capital has been accompanied by increasing controversy about its actual meaning and effects. I consider here the alternative applications of the concept as an attribute of individuals vs. collectivities and discuss the extent to which causal propositions formulated at each level are logically sound. I present some empirical evidence illustrating the possibility that, despite the current popularity of the concept, much of its alleged benefits may be spurious after controlling for other factors. Implications of this analysis and results for theory and policy are discussed.
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ISSN:0884-8971
1573-7861
DOI:10.1023/A:1007537902813