Determinants of Social Capital

The determinants are numerous and varied and there is both a lack of consensus and a lack of evidence to support the propositions. Several influential studies have suggested that social capital's roots are buried in centuries of cultural evolution (Fukuyama 1995; Putnam et al. 1993).  Other investigators suggest that social capital can be created in the short term to support political and economic development (Brown and Ashman 1996; Fox 1994; Tendler and Freedheim 1994). Aldridge, Halpern et al (2002) suggested that the main determinants of social capital include: history and culture; whether social structures are flat or hierarchical; the family; education; the built environment; residential mobility; economic inequalities and social class; the strength and characteristics of civil society; and patterns of individual consumption and personal values. Pantoja (1999) identified a different set again, including: family and kinship connections; wider social networks of associational life covers the full range of formal and informal horizontal arrangements; networks; political society; institutional and policy framework which includes the formal rules and norms that regulate public life; and social norms and values. The majority of these claims originate in applied theory and stem from much work done on other concepts such as network analysis, civic society, cultural studies, education, psychology, and many others. Even where empirical research has been performed, the findings have questionable validity.

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