Both glue and lubricant: Transnational ethnic social capital as a source of Asia-Pacific subregionalism

Social capital not only forms and functions at the individual, group, and o rganizational levels, but also permeates and transcends the political and g eographic boundaries of nation-states. This paper examines transnational et hnic social networks based on ancestral and kinship ties as a form of socia l capital that facilitates economic growth and transformation in a transbor der subregional context. Transnational ethnic social capital works by gluin g multiple economic actors on opposite sides of a border together and by lu bricating economic transactions among them. When purposefully mobilized by government policies, transnational ethnic social capital in turn induces mo re responsive and efficient policy initiatives and implementation. This pap er also considers whether ethnic social capital is both a necessary and suf ficient condition for successful transnational subregionalism by demonstrat ing its interaction with certain crucial complementary or contradictory fac tors.