Social Sustainability
Social Capital
The networks, norms and trust that enable people to cooperate — a form of capital as real as infrastructure, and one disasters consistently prove.
Definition
Social capital is the value embedded in social relationships: the networks, trust, norms of reciprocity and shared institutions that enable collective action. Developed by Bourdieu, Coleman and Putnam, the concept distinguishes bonding capital (within groups), bridging capital (across groups) and linking capital (to power holders); high social capital predicts collective efficacy, institutional performance and — repeatedly in disaster research — survival and recovery.
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