Authors : 1Mohammed Shamim Uddin Khan , 2Farid Ahammad Sobhani and 1Mohammad Hasmat Ali
Abstract: There has been a rapid development in the discussion of the notion of ‘social capital` since eighties and early nineties. The term has been used in a variety of ways in the literature, but those variations always include connections among people and organizations. The term formally distinguished and named a new form of capital by some scholars who deserve to mention their name especially Bourdieu (1986), Coleman (1988; 1990), Fukuyama (1995), Putnam (2000) etc. All of them emphasized the role of social relations, synergy, shared norms, values and trust. Social capital facilitates coordination and cooperation between individuals or groups. The concept of social capital has been applied to explain a variety of social, political and economic phenomena. This concept highlights the importance of non-market social interactions in socioeconomic outcomes, seeks to fill a lacuna in the traditional neoclassical economic framework. The neoclassical economic framework ignores the role of non-market social interactions determining individual and collective behaviour and shaping economic and social outcomes. In the real world, individual and collective behaviour is continuously shaped by non-market social influences in the form of culture, norms and social structure i.e. social capital. Recently, some scholars have shown that there are positive impact of high levels of social capital on well-being, economic growth, health, government efficiency, security and so on. Though there has been a proliferation of the literature on social capital in recent years, but it is fraught with serious conceptual, measurement and estimation problems. This paper focuses on the concept and essential components of formation of social capital. The paper also highlights the role of social capital in politico-socio-economic development in a developing country like Bangladesh.
1Mohammed Shamim Uddin Khan , 2Farid Ahammad Sobhani and 1Mohammad Hasmat Ali , 2005. Social Capital: A Multidimensional Approach of Socioeconomic Development . Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 3: 124-128.