Isn’t social capital too diverse to be captured in one term?
Capital is an abstract concept that encapsulates huge diversity. Economists wondered whether you could talk about physical capital (which covers everything from a hammer to a computer to an automobile assembly plant). Similarly, human capital covers everything from piano lessons to a vocational course in cooking or automotive repair, to a graduate degree in Philosophy and covers education of widely differing quality. So too, social capital covers a wide diversity of relationships: a team at the workplace, conversations with one’s neighbors, relationships with the teachers of one’s children, an alumni network, people you volunteered with a couple of times. The point in all these cases (physical, human, and social capital) is that these underlying attributes can have real value to society and that someone embedded in social networks that foster reciprocity can be more effective than someone who is not in such networks, the same way as someone possessing physical or human capital can be m
