Social Capital Versus Social Theory

Traces the origins of social capital through the work of Becker, Bourdieu and Coleman and reviews the literature across the social sciences. This book is topical and uniquely critical of social capital.
Initially, social capital was used to reveal how family affects schooling; since the 1990s, it has come to explain why nations, communities and individuals are rich or poor in every respect. No area of socio-economic analysis and policy has been left untouched by what the World Bank describes as the missing link to development, from Russia and the Third World, to the ghettos of North America. Ben Fine traces the origins of social capital through the work of Becker, Bourdieu and Coleman, and comprehensively reviews the literature across the social sciences. This text is a criticism of social capital, explaining how it avoids a proper confrontation with political economy and, as a result of its origins and evolution, has become chaotic.