Social capital and community development

Abstract

There is growing recognition of social capital as a resource which can both facilitate and constrain social action. Focussing on a North Indian village community in its historical context, the paper examines the processes of social capital formation, impact of changes in macro-structure on social capital and its role in development. The paper finds that processes of change exert opposing pressures on social capital some strengthening and others eroding it. An important observation is that formal institutions, if in conflict with informal institutions, would severely constrain collective action. It seems possible, however, to design a purposive action to make the relationship between the two types of institutions complementary and synergetic to harness social energy for development.