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... Social capital is recognized as a primary resource to mitigate inequalities and poverty in African rural settings (Burkina Faso - Grootaert et al., 2000;Uganda -Hassan and Birungi, 2011). It may play a key role to compensate for institutional, market and individual fragilities, generating benefits in terms of welfare and income (Abdul-Hakim et al., 2010;Murphy et al., 2016). ...
... In particular, social capital may act as a substitute of weak formal institutions and improve the economic conditions of the community members through three main mechanisms: sharing of information among association members, reduction of opportunistic behaviour, and improved collective decision making (Hu and Jones, 2004;Fafchamps, 2006;Kim and Kang, 2014). In African regions, these mechanisms have been specifically explored by focussing on the importance of civic participation, and thus of social capital, in favouring the diffusion of inter-personal trust and in enabling reciprocally beneficial collective actions (see Grootaert et al., 2000;Carter and Maluccio, 2003). This is particularly important in rural areas, where community-based organisations, non-governmental organisations, religious organisations, cooperative societies, political parties, and solidarity groups, may create a bridge among heterogeneous people that, otherwise, would have never come into contact (Bime and Mbanasor, 2011;Atemnkeng and Vukenkeng, 2016;Rambe and Mosweunyane, 2017). ...
... Another critical issue deals with the role of education in generating additional effects on poverty alleviation. In contrast with other studies (Grootaert et al., 2000), but in line with more recent evidence (Asongu and Le Roux, 2019), our results suggest that human capital also matters in mitigating poverty and it can be determinant of pro-poor growth in developing countries. However, the magnitude of its effect is lower than the one of social capital. ...
Purpose
The aim is to discuss the role of social capital in alleviating poverty in the rural setting of Africa by viewing it as an individual and collective asset.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use primary data from a survey on rural households living in three different districts in rural Africa. The authors design a social complexity index giving evidence on the poverty alleviation effect of complex patterns of civic participation at district level.
Findings
Results support the view that social capital may mitigate poverty only if a rural household simultaneously participates in a plurality of social communities. Such mitigation is reinforced if she also lives in a socially complex district, whereas on the contrary the social complexity of a district, per se , is not enough to alleviate poverty.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to advance the knowledge of African rural areas and to identify potential developments of poverty policies in Africa based on diversified social capital as a valuable ingredient for poverty alleviation policies. This paper also contributes to the debate on social capital by showing that diversified social capital has a prevailing individual nature rather than a collective one.
... However, in the context of Jamaica, there is no clear indication that the existence of social capital is linked to poverty alleviation. Grootaert's (1999) research on poverty alleviation in Africa and Asia directly linked social capital formation on those continents with the reduction in poverty, particularly in urban areas. Grootaert concluded that the extent of social capital formation in these countries "helped to reduce the household exposure to their risk of falling below the poverty threshold" (p. ...
In many developing countries, one aspect of the government's poverty reduction strategy is the provision of low-income housing units. Scholars and donor agencies have now agreed that poverty is multi-dimensional, and people living in poverty need a wide range of solutions targeting the individual , the community and the state. Since the 1990s, research on poverty alleviation has shown greater emphasis on community-driven development and strengthening the capacity of community-based organisations as an effective means of alleviating poverty. The paper examines whether the provision of low-income housing units serves as a more effective tool for poverty reduction when compared with a community-driven development approach. The community-driven approach is discussed from the perspective of the assets of the individual and the communities and how these assets can be improved for the sustainable growth and development of the individual and the wider community. Also, the community development approach to poverty alleviation assumes that residents of communities, who are the target population for poverty alleviation, should be active and equal partners in deciding on the distribution of resources to the community. On the other hand, the provision of low income/low-cost housing units typically focuses on the role of the market in the design, construction and overall delivery of the units to the targeted recipients.
... There have admittedly been variants or modifications of these two approaches also in the literature. From the works of Narayan & Pritchett (1997 and Grootaert, Swamy & Oh (1999), the aggregative measure of organizational social capital can be decomposed into seven separate measures, each of which contains an argument concerning the relationship between organizational social capital and household welfare (Hu & Jones, 2004). ...
... In that study of 233 rural food crops farmers in Osun State in Nigeria, using an econometric approach (probit model), they showed that the relationship between socioeconomic characteristics like 'age', 'sex' (gender), 'household size', 'education', 'membership in social organizations' and the indices of social capital they employed in the analysis, was positive. In the study, social capital was measured using the approach by Grootaert, Oh & Swamy (1999 which created 6 dimensions of social capital, namely, 'density of membership', 'heterogeneity index', 'meeting attendance index', 'cash contribution', 'labour contribution', 'decision-making index', and 'aggregate social capital index'. Similarly, the study by Akinbode & Hamzat (2017), which examined structural causes and constraints to poverty, found that 'education', 'marital status' and 'income' were significant determinants of 'poverty status' in the study area. ...
The book describes how 'communal values create obligations' which constrain the appropriation of resources embedded in informal networks and social relations among a homogenous people in a rural setting in Nigeria, a country with over 60% of its population especially households, living in poverty, in the midst of plenty. Using a unique non-econometric, conceptual and methodological approach, ethnographic and cross-sectional survey data, the study demonstrated how households get 'drawn back' by their stock of social capital, which become an encumbrance of a kind and thus reinforce rather than alleviate rural household poverty. It concludes that the design and implementation of rural development policies should incorporate such 'resourced' informal networks and relations as 'enablers', to help 'remove the drawbacks' and optimise their capacity for mobilising rural households for effective participation in government's pro-poor schemes to enhance the chances of success and unleash the potential for a 'bottom-up led' sustainable, community social development process.
... In Italy, Putnam (1993) has explored civic community, and social capital. The World Bank has conducted research on village institutions and leadership, such as local level institution studies in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, and Indonesia (Grootaert et al., 1999;Wetterberg, Jellema & Dharmawan, 2014), and local governance reforms in Europe, and the United States (US) (Berg & Rao, 2005). ...
... Other research in Indonesia has explored the importance of local customs and identity (Choi, 2011;Henley & Davidson, 2008;Aspinall & Fealy, 2003), and the rise of the civil society (Antlöv et al., 2010;Takano, 2008;Nordholt & Klinken, 2007). In addition to monitoring democratisation, decentralisation, and communitybased development processes, some initiatives have been undertaken to encourage civil society institutions to promote government accountability and effectiveness in sectors such as education, health, and social capital, in an effort to improve community welfare or reduce poverty (Grootaert et al., 1999;Wetterberg et al., 2014). Henley and Davidson (2007) argue that traditions and customs in Indonesian politics are important to understand the contemporary Indonesian political landscape. ...
Over time, village governance in Indonesia has undergone many changes. In the pre-colonial era, villages were organised according to the local customary law called ‘adat’, and today, those same villages are part of the modern state. Suharto’s centralised New Order regime led to dramatic changes in village governance, as all villages were arranged uniformly in a system called ‘desa’. Changes to the law after Suharto left office were marked by regional autonomy, which allowed local governments to manage their own territories in accordance with local conditions. Some desa chose to return to an adat village system. The village dynamics have, more recently, been heightened with the passing of the Village Law, which allocates funds to villages to manage independently. This has resulted in the subdivision of villages, in order to acquire more funds. In this paper, we argue that the trend in village splitting is not necessarily related to changes in the law or political events. Based on ethnographic research conducted in a village in West Sumatra, this paper concludes that the dynamics of returning to the customary order, and the decisions to divide villages are influenced by factors of history, tradition and local culture, and by a momentum not previously experienced.
... In poor households, increasing food security and welfare is basically inseparable from how families do coping strategies to get out of vulnerable conditions by using various available resources; one of them is social capital (Farrington, Ramasut, & Walker 2002). Social capital can help households in coping for the risk of income fluctuations and it positively correlates with household welfare (Grootaert, Gi-Tai & Swamy, 1999;Alfiasari, 2008). The coping -409 -Coping strategies are carried out by the family to deal with short-term crises towards adaptation to survive or out of vulnerability (Weber 2011). ...
This study aims to analyze the influence of socioeconomic demographic characteristics of family (HH), social capital (SC) and economic coping strategies (EC) on level of food security (FS) in urban poor households. Data were collected from surveys in four urban areas in four regencies/cities in Jambi Province, Indonesia. Analysis was carried out descriptively and using SEM-PLS model. The study found that HH (age of household's head, number of members, age structure of members, main activity of members, and family income per capita) had a significant effect on the level of FS. SC had a significant direct effect on EC. However, SC did not have significant direct effect on FS. Although EC had a significant effect on FS, it had a negative direction. It shows that the EC for survival carried out by urban poor communities worsens the condition of FS.
... We found that scholars usually divide social capital into several categories in order to measure it. Based on their various categories and indicators (Putnam et al., 1994;Grootaert et al., 1999;Pretty and Ward, 2001;Villalonga-Olives and Kawachi, 2015) and considering China's special national conditions, we have identified three types of categories. These are innovative capital, structural capital, and relational capital. ...
Chinese society's unique characteristics present challenges with regard to discovering new ways to tackle tremendous environmental problems. This paper examines the effect of provincial social capital on environmental performance in China. In the first stage of the analysis, we measured the environmental performance levels of the 2011–2017 panel data of 30 provinces in China. We did this using data envelopment analysis (DEA). After introducing the concept of social capital, we innovatively built the social capital index system based on China's national conditions and measured social capital data from three perspectives. Then, we used the Probit regression model to explore the effect of social capital on environmental performance. The results show that the environmental performance of the well-known and better developed regions of China (such as Beijing, Shanghai, etc.) is significantly higher than other regions. Social capital and environmental performance are related in general. However, the effect of social capital on environmental performance is heterogeneous in different regions. They are more consistent in the eastern and southwest regions but are less stable in other regions. Among the three types of social capital, structural capital has the most obvious benefits for environmental performance. This is followed by relational capital and innovative capital. Furthermore, it has been found that the proportion of the tertiary industry in GDP and the level of social trust are the largest indicators of the rates at which structural capital and relational capital contribute, respectively, to environmental performance.
... Grootaert, Narayan, Jones & Woolcock (2003) developed the Integrated Questionnaire (Grootaert & Van Bastelaer earlier developed one in 2002) for the Measurement of Social Capital (SC-IQ), which has six components namely, 'Groups and Networks', 'Trust and Solidarity', 'Collective Action and Cooperation', 'Information and Communication', 'Social Cohesion and Inclusion', 'Empowerment and Political Action'. The second approach isthe seven-component index by Narayan & Pritchett (1997 and with Grootaert, Swamy & Oh (1999), each of the separate measures of this aggregative index of organisational social capital contains an argument concerning the relationship between organisational social capital and household welfare (Hu & Jones, 2004). The seven measures are density of membership (how many organisations you belong to); meeting attendance (whether you actively participate in the organisation); decision-making (whether you have a say in the affairs of the organisation); heterogeneity (whether you belong to an organisation which has very different members); effectiveness (whether you think the organisation does a good job); benefits (whether you think that you and your community have benefited from the activities of the organisation); and contributions (the extent to which you contribute to the organisation, in cash or in kind) (Narayan & Pritchett, 1997, Hu & Jones, 2004. ...
Abstract:
Most studies on social capital especially in Africa, have adopted econometric models in explaining its role in the different
developmental paths of societies with similar endowments. From a historical perspective, relying on aggregative national
survey data on social welfare, ‘wellbeing’, ‘national happiness index’ to an examination using increasingly structured
proximate measures of formal community organisational activities, in particular, membership participation and benefits
and their impact on the rural household welfare, almost to the exclusion of informal social capital. Although the influence
of technology, especially with the increasing penetration, access and massive impact of the social media have stimulated
further research interest in social capital, particularly in Europe and America, econometric modeling and analytical
techniques still dominates, while most African researchers have been more interested in how formal social capital impact
the welfare of the poor rural farming households as a way to develop rural communities. This paper argues, following an
extensive review of the literature that the fixation with ‘econometric analysis’ and ‘formal social capital’, presents only a
partial view - it does not explain the significant role of informal social capital - resources that inhere in informal, yet
durable social networks and relations that characterise the community social structure and are encapsulated in its social
history. The paper further opines that greater attention should be given to the role of informal social capital in rural
household welfare enhancement towards creating a structured role for kinship based groups in the development process,
stripping them of the ‘negative’, ‘anti-development’ toga and optimise their potential capacity for mobilisation of rural
poor households for active participation in the design and implementation of pro-poor policies and schemes. It would also
help redirect research efforts and provide the much-needed evidence for realistic policies especially on ‘bottom-up’,
community participatory implementation strategy for developing rural communities.
Keywords: Social capital research, formal social capital, informal networks and relations, community social structure,
social history, community development.
... Ovviamente, la 10 Su un indice di eterogeneità che varia tra 0 (massima omogeneità) e 1 (massima eterogeneità), in media le associazioni produttive raggiungono il valore di 0,69; quelle culturali lo 0,29. Questo indice, che tiene conto delle differenze etniche, religiose, di sesso, di età e di ricchezza nella composizione di ciascuna associazione, è stato costruito sulla falsariga di Grootaert et al. (1999). 11 L'idea, in altri termini, è che quanto più le appartenenze associative di un individuo sono differenziate, tali cioè da metterlo in relazione con ambienti sociali eterogenei, tanto più ci si può aspettare la presenza di aspettative di cooperazione generalizzate, in linea con l'argomento per cui «sono sistemi di relazioni intersecantesi, piuttosto che concentrici, a facilitare l'integrazione di persone e gruppi sociali con differenti interessi e visioni del mondo» (Diani 2000, 488). ...
Introduzione
L'importanza dei problemi legati all'azione collettiva — e più in generale alla cooperazione — per lo studio della politica non può essere trascurata. In effetti, è difficile trovare un'area della vita sociale in cui siano assenti. Alcuni di questi problemi trovano delle soluzioni; molti altri no. A questo riguardo, si è spesso fatto uso del dilemma del prigioniero, in cui la defezione domina indipendentemente dalle decisioni attese da parte dei singoli attori. Sebbene tuttavia tale modello fornisca importanti spunti per comprendere le complesse dinamiche legate a un'interazione tra più individui, tende a sottovalutare il ruolo delle aspettative, con conseguenze rilevanti sia da un punto di vista teorico che di policy making.
... This kind of network expansion, which is critical for long-term growth and development, also has positive short-term effects on welfare and risk exposure. Several studies conducted in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, and Tanzania found that social capital has a positive effect on household welfare (as measured by per capita consumption), and that the effect was several times greater than that of human capital alone (Grootaert 1999a;Grootaert and Narayan 2000;Grootaert, Oh, and Swamy 1999). The creation of networks and social capital also helps to reduce household exposure to risk. ...
... In particular, for researchers interested in economic development, social capital has great intuitive appeal as a resource available to poor people who are often described as deficient along other vectors such as human, physical, and financial capital (Grootaert and van Bastelaer 2001; Woolcock 2002). Since the seminal work of Putnam (1993) on the role of social capital in explaining Italy's economic success, interest in the relations between social capital and poverty has been growing rapidly (Abdul-Hakim, Abdul-Razak, and Ismail, 2010; Grootaert 1999; Grootaert, Swamy, and Oh 1999; Levesque 2005; Maluccio, Haddad, and May, 2000; Narayan 1999; Narayan and Pritchett 1999; Rose 1999; Tiepoh and Reimer 2004; Woolcock and Narayan 2000; Yusuf 2008). The mechanism through which social capital is said to reduce poverty is through the bonding, bridging, and linking role it plays within an economy. ...
