Social capital at different levels and dimensions: a typology of social capital

Social capital can have different meanings depending on the conceptual approach adopted by the researcher or practitioner using the term. This can create confusion and contradiction when unwitting scholars mix and match definitions, conceptualisations, and methodologies from different approaches. This is further complicated by the fact that social capital can be analysed from the micro to the macro level and applied to a wide range of different contexts across virtually every area of the social sciences. This article presents a typology of social capital dimensions at different levels of analysis with the goal to assist students and scholars to make sense of the many conceptualisations and theoretical treatments of social capital in the literature