Social capital in the home and community

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Erosion of Social Capital

Defining Social Capital

Before a discussion regarding remedies against the erosion of social capital can be discussed it is important to understand what social capital means. Social Capital is a term and concept in the social sciences. The social sciences are those bodies of knowledge that seek to explore, explain and understand the social world via the use of scientific inquiry. In a broad sense, the social sciences seek to study human society. Included in this broad field are the following human sciences - economics, sociology, history, anthropology, linguistics, political science, ethnography and geography. In all these fields of study falling under the umbrella of the social sciences, the concept of social capital plays a pivotal role in understanding what makes cultures and societies effective in preserving industry, traditions and identity. This is because of the nature of the social world - people live in groups and communities and these groups and communities are connected to each other in a bigger scale making a nation one massive social network. The connections, within and between groups in the social network, are what we refer to as the network or the community's Social Capital. The erosion of these connections makes projects more difficult to execute and goals more difficult to achieve for individuals and for the social group, in general, affecting efficiency and industry.

An Example

If a nation is one giant social network, the physical capital of that nation (infrastructure, natural resources) is being made to work for said nation by its human capital - us. We fill varied roles to make society work - we fuel the economy, we administer ourselves, we create jobs and we make our governments work for ...