Economics, Social Capital, and the Colonization of the Social Sciences

Abstract

Abstract ONE reason for the rise of ‘social capital’ in social discourse is that the concept appears to constitute a new weapon to deploy at the perennial skirmishes on the borders between economics and other social sciences. Although only a minority of economists will yet have heard of it, social capital appears to be both quantifiable and related to traditional economic variables like Gross Domestic Product growth rates, thus potentially trumping economists at their own game. Or, to be less confrontational, social capital may be viewed as a way for other social sciences to engage with economists, to introduce a social element into the analysis of economic phenomena and thus achieve a unified theory.