Social capital2003

"The term 'social capital' is a way of conceptualizing the intangible resources of community, shared values and trust upon which we draw in daily life. It has achieved considerable currency in the social sciences and has been taken up within politics and sociology as a means of explaining the decline of social cohesion and community values in many western societies. This is an indispensable introduction to the topic which explains the theoretical underpinning of the subject, the empirical work that has been done to explore its operation and the effect that it has had on policy making."--Jacket.