An overview of the role of social capital in development processes

Abstract

The sustainability of ICT for Development (ICT4D) initiatives, and indeed any development initiative, depends on many different factors that has been summarised in terms of financial, social, institutional, technological, and environmental sustainability. This complexity has led to researchers suggesting bricolage approaches that try to make do with the resources at hand, improvise and muddle through to develop local and contextual solutions. An important factor in this kind of approach is the role of relationships, particularly as evidenced in social networks of contact consisting of strong and weak ties, that has been called social capital and linking or bridging capital. The concept of social capital has been shown to influence many different processes in development. In the use of resources the capability approach refers to the influence of social capital on the conversion of commodities, technologies and resources by a person into situated use. The adoption of an innovation is also influenced by social capital, especially via the important role that is played by trust. In the design of development interventions, various types of theories of change have been articulated and the role of social capital in some of these theories is investigated. This paper aims to summarise and analyse the influence of social capital on development processes as seen from the different perspectives mentioned. In terms of development, a fundamental insight is that social capital plays a role in mediating development outcomes through embedded and autonomous social relations that can resolve social problems at macro and micro levels. Social capital also consists in crucial cross-level linkages that need to exist to enable top-down initiatives to meet bottom-up development.