The role of social capital in negotiating socio-economic needs

This study is an investigation which focuses on the existing body of literature covering the construct of social capital and fundamental human need theories, particularly the need to understand and find meaning. It examines these in relationship to learning, culture and activity theory. The study is a preliminary investigation with limited scope. The thesis establishes an explanatory analysis and accompanying conceptual framework to be tested by further research. A proposed meth9dology for data collection and ·analysis is included. The thesis takes a humanistic approach and proposes that fundamental human need satisfaction is foundational to human well-being and growth within people's varied lifeworlds. The study reveals that human interactions and value systems connect the concepts of social capital, fundamental human need and culture in the form of activities surrounding fundamental human need satisfaction. Regarding the construct of social capital and its elements of shared values, trust, norms, reciprocity and networks, the structural, relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital are proposed and examined. This thesis suggests that the elements of the social capital construct work together to facilitate human interactions aimed at satisfying fundamental human needs across different socio-cultural systems. It places particular ~mphasis on the learning process required to negotiate the range of socio-economic need satisfactions across different cultures. Tue study also discusses theories surrounding communitarian psychology as a precursor to the introduction of activity theory. Activitxi theory in this thesis is explained as a learning model emphasising human activity aimed at the satisfaction of fundamental human needs. This thesis further develops the activity theory model to demonstrate the role social capital plays as a resource. A resource, which when accessed, acts as a mediator of human interaction aimed at enabling the satisfaction of fundamental human needs. This model directly links human values to human activity-and stresses the link between human values, human action, and the satisfaction of fundamental human needs. The model demonstrates how human values have a direct effect on how a person perceives need-satisfying activities and what resources can be accessed and used in any activity. This thesis's explanatory analysis and associated conceptual :framework give rise to a set of propositions, questions and hypotheses. The thesis underpins and justifies the significance of, and need for, a future cross-cultural study for which a methodology is proposed. This proposed future study places at its centre the importance of human values as a pivotal point around which social capital is generated and maintained