How can social capital be decreasing when the nonprofit sector is booming?
There is simply said no one-to-one relationship between the nonprofit sector and social capital. While on the margin, nonprofit organizations may be more interested in fostering social capital than for-profit organizations, one can t conclude that because an organization is nonprofit, there is thus a lot of social capital being created. Imagine a nonprofit hospital that becomes privatized: it is hard to imagine that suddenly the social capital associated with the organization disappears. Similarly many nonprofit membership organizations with regard to social capital among its members are mere check-writing organizations (like the AARP) that are surprisingly devoid of social capital, since its members don t meet or know each other. Moreover, many forms of social capital (neighborhood block parties, pickup basketball, etc.) don t rely on nonprofit organizations at all. In short, while there are many terrific nonprofit organizations that are actively building and strengthening community c
