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Putnam’s Bowling Alone offers a rich but accessible introduction to the idea of social capital in the American context. The idea of “social capital” may be new to some, but it is a helpful conceptual framework that has extensive relevance. If you are interested in learning more, here are some pointers to resources that might be helpful.

First, you might want to start with websites associated with Putnam’s work.

The Bowling Alone website (http://bowlingalone.com/) is a bit sparse, but there is more information on the Better Together website (http://www.bettertogether.org/). This second website is connected to another book by Putnam (and Feldstein) which examines organizations that are working to strengthen social capital. That book may be worth further exploration, as well.

A paper written by Michael Woolcock and Deepa Narayan (available online at http://deepanarayan.com/pdf/papers/woolcock.pdf) explores social capital within the context of international development, and provides some additional detail about the concept.

A seminal article which may be of interest is Mark Granovetter’s article on “The Strength of Weak Ties”:

Granovetter, M. S. (1973.) The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380

I have not personally read the above resources in their entirety, but they may be some helpful places to start for further exploration of the concept of social capital and its applications.

The image below represents my attempt to capture some of the dimensions of social capital, based on these and other readings. As I noted in an early post, this conceptual framework was of particular relevance to my work in Cambodia (hence my interest), but social capital is important in any context in which we want to build community for the flourishing of us all.