Social Capital within Coolah

Susie Brown

stipa@coolahddg.com.au

July 2000

What is Social Capital and where did the term come from?

The term Social Capital was first used by Glenn Loury in 1977 ( Stephen Leeder, 1998).

It was a little like Mendel’s work on genetics in that it had to be rediscovered before it became important. It has been in literature more commonly due to the work of Robert Putnam who started to introduce the notion of Social capital in 1993 using Italian communities as the basis of his study (Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy).

In Australia it has reached the common language of sociologists via her Boyer lectures given by Eva Cox in 1995.

Social Capital has been undergoing an evolutionary period, as happens in a dynamic language such as ours, and can now he defined as:

  • the processes of networking, using norms, socially trusting, and
  • co-ordinating between social entities, co-operating for mutual benefit.

It is therefore very different to financial capital which is easily quantified by a dollars figure, or resource capital which can be quantified by hectares or tonnes of minerals. It is not human capital that involves the skills and resourcefulness of individual humans. Social Capital can be measured but is probably more easily measured using ethnographic methodology and by qualitative data collection rather than quantitative data.

Some workers in the field (Paul Bullen and Jenny Onyx) think Social Capital is important to develop within societies because it is essential for civil society, economic development, community health, community development and resilience to change.

What do you Measure to Measure Social Capital?

Participation in Networks - interlocking relationships between lots of groups.

Reciprocity - taking care of each others’ interests and the interests of all.

Altruism – rather than egotism. This is a very important issue as egotists will decrease social trust and so people will tend not to float ideas within a group dominated by an egotist.

Trust - to take risks within a social sphere. Social Norms - unwritten, inarticulated but with the ability to make you feel bad intrinsically when you have broken one. The Commons - shared ownership of resources.

Proactivity - a community that designs a future for itself rather than is a victim of fate or worse still a victim of a poor self fulfilling prophecy. People are actively participating in a range of community activities.

Social Norms - unwritten, inarticulated but with the ability to make you feel bad intrinsically when you have broken one, therefore it is even more binding and does not require enforcement.

The Commons - shared ownership of resources such as halls, the telecenter, school. The commons are greatly utilised in this community for a multitude of activities outside their original design.

What does Coolah have that demonstrates the characteristics of high Social Capital and how is this developed?

  • People feel they are part of the community.
  • They feel useful and help in a variety of community ventures and experiences
  • They actively participate in community networks such as public meetings, group meetings, working bees and social activities raising money for charity
  • When there is a crisis, all work together eg when a house bums down, the owners have a new (albeit second hand) set of furniture within two days including linen and crockery. Recently cattle were stolen from a property outside Coonabarabran. Within one week there was a drive where each property donated one beast to replace those stolen.
  • Children are minded by the community when in public spaces.
  • High feeling of individual safety. Doors are opened for women as they enter a shop by the person exiting.
  • People help strangers and sometimes involve them in what is going on. eg. There is often a child’s birthday party going on in the local park because it is central and children can spill drinks and have a good time. Tourists are often adopted during these parties when they stop to use the rest rooms there.
  • Many people assist with events – no one person gets lumbered.
  • Huge range of reciprocal networks where all benefit both in making their job easier and in getting things done. Often barter for altruistic gains. eg a farmer may allow someone to cut firewood from their property provided that they give little old ladies in town free firewood.
  • High incidence of barter.
  • Cars are not locked despite law changes.
  • People feel valued and are told so.
  • People know who will help them find out something.
  • There is a strong sense of empathy - oh the poor bugger! What can we do to help?
  • Everyone knows everyone's business - this has advantages neighbourhood watch but some disadvantages too.
  • Cars are not locked despite changes in the law which are known by the community. A survey in town in late May, 2000, showed that 17 out of twenty cars parked in the main street were not locked and many had the keys still in the ignition.
  • People feel valued and are told so – this reinforcement keeps up their self worth and maintains participation. This is very important when things get a tough or there has been heated discussion.
  • People know who to approach to find out information – strong information networks.
  • There is a strong sense of empathy – Oh the poor buggar! What can we do to help? This is a typical attitude.
  • Everyone knows everyone's business – this has advantages such as there exists a natural neighbourhood watch, but it has some disadvantages too when you would like to drop out of the public eye.
  • Social capital involves asking people to participate and recognising their strengths and almost exploiting them. Asking reticent participants increases participation by highly talented people that may be a little shy (to begin with).
  • A community that has a strong social capital is a community where people are not afraid of change or embracing technology because someone is always there to hold their hand or to ask.
  • Transformational leadership manifested in a team approach generates social capital as members of the community develop their own leadership skills through delegation of responsibility and given the trust that is inherent in making responsibility work.