ANNOTATED OUTLINE – SOCIAL CAPITAL

1. The capital approach is an economic theory used to help measure and understand important features of the human environment. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), “Capital in economics is something produced in one time period to be used in the production of other goods and income during future time periods ” (ABS, 2004, p.109). The four primary forms of capital currently are natural, economic, human and social. Of these, the most controversial is social capital. 2. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD) defined social capital as the “ … resources gained through social ties, memberships of networks and sharing of norms” (Cotes and Healy, 2001, p. 23). This definition has since been adopted by several national statistical organisations, including the ABS and Statistics Canada. It implies that social capital exists to provide access to the resources of other capital forms. 3. In 2007, Czesany highlighted the importance of social connections when he defined social capital as the “Networks together with shared norms, values and understandings that facilitate co-operation within or among groups. ” This conceptualisation reflects recent acknowledgement that social capital is itself a unique and valuable source of well-being