Professional Community Development Roles: The Case of Citizen Involvement and Social Capital

The essence of community development lies in cooperation for mutual benefit, as highlighted by David Hume's parable of the farmers.
Hume's Parable:
- Illustrates how lack of mutual confidence and security can lead to collective loss, even when cooperation would result in shared prosperity.
- Farmers failing to cooperate due to lack of trust, leading to loss of harvests.
Real-world Examples of Cooperation Failure:
- Parents not collaborating to improve schools.
- Residents failing to unite for safer streets.
- Farmers in the Global South struggling with irrigation and marketing due to lack of cooperation.
- Global inaction on climate change.
The Predicament:
- Failure to cooperate isn't due to irrationality or malevolence but being trapped in a situation.
- Social scientists analyze this through concepts like the tragedy of the commons, logic of collective action, public goods, and prisoner's dilemma.
- Everyone would benefit from cooperation, but without coordination and commitment, defection becomes the rational choice.

Social Capital: A Solution to Collective Action Problems

Definition: Features of social organization like networks, norms, and trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit.
- Analogous to physical and human capital, it enhances productivity.
- It enhances the benefits of investment in physical and human capital.
- Working together becomes easier with a substantial stock of social capital.
Practical Implications:
- Addressing issues like poverty and violence, revitalizing industry, and nurturing democracies.

Lessons from an Italian Experiment

Italian Regional Governments:
- Established in 1970, 20 new regional governments were identical in form but situated in diverse contexts.
Research Approach:
- Studying government performance in diverse settings to understand institutional evolution, similar to how a botanist studies plant development.
Outcomes:
- Some governments failed (inefficient, corrupt), while others succeeded (innovative programs, economic development).
Factors Examined:
- Government organization was too similar to explain differences.
- Party politics/ideology made little difference.
- Affluence/prosperity had no direct effect.
- Social stability, political harmony, and population movements were not key factors.
Key Predictor: Civic Engagement:
- Strong traditions of civic engagement (voter turnout, newspaper readership, association membership) are hallmarks of successful regions.
Civic vs. Uncivic Regions:
- Civic Regions (e.g., Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany):
  - Active community organizations.
  - Citizens engaged in public issues.
  - Mutual trust and law obedience.
  - Honest leaders committed to equality.
  - Horizontal social and political networks.
  - Value solidarity, civic participation, and integrity.
- Uncivic Regions (e.g., Calabria, Sicily):
  - Stunted concept of citizenship.
  - Meager engagement in social/cultural associations.
  - Public affairs seen as 'somebody else's business'.
  - Laws are made to be broken, yet strict discipline is demanded.
  - Feelings of powerlessness, exploitation, and unhappiness.
Historical Roots:
- Civic communities trace back to the 11th century with communal republics in Florence, Bologna, and Genoa.
- Civic heritage includes networks of organized reciprocity and civic solidarity (guilds, fraternities, cooperatives).
Causation:
- Historical record suggests being civic led to wealth, not the other way around.
- Social capital is a precondition for economic development and effective government.

How Social Capital Undergirds Good Government and Economic Progress

Generalized Reciprocity:
- Networks of civic engagement foster norms of generalized reciprocity (doing favors with the expectation of future returns).
- $Social\ capital \approx Favor \ bank$ (Robert Frank).
- Trust lubricates social life; a society that relies on generalized reciprocity is more efficient than a distrustful one, like money vs. barter.
Coordination and Communication:
- Facilitates coordination, communication, and amplifies information about trustworthiness.
- Cooperation is sustained through repeat play (prisoners' dilemmas).
- Embedded economic and political dealings in social networks reduce opportunism.
- Dense social ties facilitate gossip and reputation cultivation.
Cultural Template for Collaboration:
- Networks of civic engagement embody past collaboration success, serving as a template for future collaboration.
- Social capital makes possible ends that would not be attainable in its absence (James Coleman).
- Provides access to resources with less physical capital.

Properties of Social Capital

Self-Reinforcing and Cumulative:
- Successful collaboration builds connections and trust, facilitating future collaboration.
- Those who have social capital tend to accumulate more.
Moral Resource:
- A resource whose supply increases through use and depletes if not used (Albert O. Hirschman).
Public Good:
- Not the private property of those who benefit from it.
- Tends to be under-provided by private agents.
- Often a by-product of other social activities.
- Consists of ties, norms, and trust transferable from one social setting to another.

Social Capital and Economic Development

Vital Ingredient:
- Seen as vital in economic development.
- Vigorous grassroots associations are as essential as physical investment (rural development studies).
Common Pool Resources:
- Elinor Ostrom's work on cooperative efforts to manage resources highlights the importance of social capital.
- Government interventions that undermine social infrastructure can go awry.
East Asian Economies:
- Dense social networks are emphasized, representing "network capitalism".
- Networks based on family or ethnic communities foster trust and lower transaction costs.
Transmutation into Financial Capital:
- Social capital can be transmuted into financial capital (Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club).
China's Growth:
- Dependent on guanxi (personal connections) to underpin contracts and channel investment.
Advanced Western Economies:
- Economic transactions are more efficient when embedded in social networks (Mark Granovetter).
- Networking is a pervasive strategy.
Industrial Districts:
- Networks of collaboration among workers and small entrepreneurs fuel industries from Silicon Valley to high fashion.
New Growth Theory:
- Pays attention to social structure and the externalities of human capital.
- $Human \ capital \ accumulation$ is a fundamentally social activity (Robert Lucas).
New Strategies for Development:
- Focus on deficiencies in financial, human, and social capital.
- Reconstructing indigenous civic associations.
- Job-training schemes and industrial extension agencies creating productive linkages among community groups, schools, employers, and workers.
- Subsidies for training programs fostering local partnerships.

Social Capital and America's Ills

Urban Decay:
- Erosion of social capital contributes to urban decay.
Isolation of the Chronically Poor:
- Profound deficiencies in social capital exacerbate joblessness and inadequate education.
Lack of Connections:
- Inner-city residents lack access to job referral networks.
Neighborhood Effects:
- Youth in neighborhoods with high civic engagement are more likely to finish school, have jobs, and avoid crime (Anne Case and Lawrence Katz).
- Neighborhood effects on teen pregnancy.
- Social capital you can draw on helps to define who you are and thus to determine your fate.
Inequalities in Access:
- Racial and class inequalities in access to social capital are significant.
Racial Segregation:
- Socially inherited differences in community networks mean equal opportunity policies may not eliminate racial inequality (Glenn Loury).
Erosion of Social Capital:
- Exodus of middle-class families erodes social capital available to those left behind (William Julius Wilson).
Repositories of Social Capital:
- Neighborhood restaurants nurture fellowship.
- The black church has been a treasure-house of social capital, providing organizational infrastructure for political mobilization.
Complementary Investments:
- Investments in jobs and education are more effective when coupled with community associations.
- Churches provide job banks and serve as informal credit bureaus.
- Social connections serve as collateral for those excluded from markets.
Revitalizing American Democracy:
- Focus on deeper social changes rather than procedural issues.
- Social trust has declined.
Progressive Era:
- Non-political associations played a powerful role due to their dense social networks.
Erosion of Social Capital:
- Decline of leisure and engagement outside the marketplace.
- Mobile, two-career families use the market for services formerly provided through networks.
- Fewer people at PTA and church.
- Political parties have become evanescent, the antithesis of social capital.

Social Capital and Public Policy

Community Development:
- Focus on community development, allowing space for various organizations.
Government Policies:
- Government policies should be vetted for indirect effects on social capital.
- If home ownership fosters social capital, housing policy should reflect that.
- National service programs create social networks.
Conservative Views:
- Emphasis on intermediary associations but misunderstanding the synergy between private organization and government.
Social Capital's Role:
- Social capital is a prerequisite for effective public policy.
- Works through and with states and markets.
- Wise policy can encourage social capital formation.

Negative Effects of Social Capital

Potential for Misuse:
- Like other forms of capital, social capital can be put to bad purposes.
Social Inequalities:
- Social inequalities may be embedded in social capital.
- Norms and networks may obstruct others.
Individual Liberties:
- Some forms of social capital can impair individual liberties.
Weighing Costs and Benefits:
- Need to weigh costs as well as benefits.
Bridging Ideological Divides:
- Requires ideas that bridge outdated ideological divides.
- Promises to uncover new ways of combining private social infrastructure with public policies, and vice versa.

Future Research

What are the actual trends in different forms of civic engagement?
Why do communities differ in their stocks of social capital?
What kinds of civic engagement foster growth or effectiveness?
Must types of social capital be matched to problems?
How is social capital created and destroyed?
What strategies for building social capital are most promising?
How can we balance exploiting existing capital and creating new capital?