Social capital

Social capital

Social capital is often hard to define, but to one textbook it is:

the stock of trust, mutual understanding, shared values, and socially held knowledge that facilitates the social coordination of economic activity. [9]

Knowledge, ideas, and values, and human relationships are transmitted as part of the culture. This type of capital cannot be owned by individuals and is instead part of the common stock owned by humanity. But they often crucial to maintaining a peaceful society in which normal economictransactions and production can occur.

Another kind of social capital can be owned individually. [10] This kind of individual asset involves reputation, what accountants call " goodwill," and/or what others call "street cred," along with fame, honor, and prestige. It fits with Pierre Bourdieu’s definition of "social capital" as:

an attribute of an individual in a social context. One can acquire social capital through purposeful actions and can transform social capital into conventional economic gains. The ability to do so, however, depends on the nature of the social obligations, connections, and networks, available to you. [11]

This means that the value of individual social assets that Bourdeiu points to depend on the current "social capital" as defined above.