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Social capital and urban governance: adding a more contextualized 'top-down' perspective

Social capital and urban governance: adding a more contextualized 'top-down' perspective
Social capital and urban governance: adding a more contextualized 'top-down' perspective
There is growing interest in the social sciences in the concept of social capital and the role it plays in facilitating collaborative and collective actions. Within political science, it is the work of Robert Putnam which has dominated social capital research. This paper argues that the 'Putnam-school' approach is lacking in two main respects. First, the role played by public authorities in the creation of social capital is neglected. Second, the implications for governance cannot simply be read off from associational activity and 'stocks' of social capital. The concept of the political opportunity structure is offered and adapted to develop a framework for social capital analysis. Original empirical material from Birmingham is drawn upon and compared to earlier studies of the city in order to support and illustrate the arguments of the paper.
0032-3217
802-820
Stoker, G.
209ba619-6a65-4bc1-9235-cba0d826bfd9
Maloney, W.
18b6e256-c0a5-40f7-88af-f82822f8d176
Smith, G.
adee1144-0354-42ec-8b09-86d5974969ea
Stoker, G.
209ba619-6a65-4bc1-9235-cba0d826bfd9
Maloney, W.
18b6e256-c0a5-40f7-88af-f82822f8d176
Smith, G.
adee1144-0354-42ec-8b09-86d5974969ea

Stoker, G., Maloney, W. and Smith, G. (2000) Social capital and urban governance: adding a more contextualized 'top-down' perspective. Political Studies, 48 (4), 802-820. (doi:10.1111/1467-9248.00284).

Record type: Article

Abstract

There is growing interest in the social sciences in the concept of social capital and the role it plays in facilitating collaborative and collective actions. Within political science, it is the work of Robert Putnam which has dominated social capital research. This paper argues that the 'Putnam-school' approach is lacking in two main respects. First, the role played by public authorities in the creation of social capital is neglected. Second, the implications for governance cannot simply be read off from associational activity and 'stocks' of social capital. The concept of the political opportunity structure is offered and adapted to develop a framework for social capital analysis. Original empirical material from Birmingham is drawn upon and compared to earlier studies of the city in order to support and illustrate the arguments of the paper.

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More information

Published date: September 2000
Organisations: Politics & International Relations

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 34088
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/34088
ISSN: 0032-3217
PURE UUID: 82e4e7c7-ff31-4681-bfa9-6180ed193047
ORCID for G. Stoker: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8172-3395

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 27 Jul 2006
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:51

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Contributors

Author: G. Stoker ORCID iD
Author: W. Maloney
Author: G. Smith

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