Conceptualizing 'social capital' for health promotion in small local communities: A micro-qualitative study

This paper reports on a micro-qualitative case study of peoples' experience s of local community life in a south-cast English town. This material is us ed as the basis for a critical discussion of the suitability of Putnam's no tion of social capital as a conceptual tool for the design and evaluation o f community strengthening' policies and interventions. The study was motiva ted by a concern that too much debate about social capital has been conduct ed by academics and policy-makers in a top-down manner, with inadequate att ention to the realities of life in the local communities that they refer to . Three-hour semi-structured interviews were conducted with 37 residents in two less affluent wards in our town of interest. Informants-half men and h alf women, and spread across the 15-75 age group-were encouraged to talk ab out their personal experiences of local community life. Interview findings are presented within the 'norm' categories of trust, neighbourliness and re ciprocal help and support, and the 'network' categories of participation in informal networks, voluntary groupings and community activist groupings. O ur case study, points to a number of ways in which Putnam's concept needs t o be refined if it is to inform 'community strengthening' policies and inte rventions in England. Far more notice needs to be taken of the role played by informal networks of friends and neighbours in the construction of local community life. Attention also needs to be given to the complex and shifti ng geographical spread of peoples' significant social networks. Putnam's co nceptualization of cohesive local communities and his unitary notions of tr ust and local identity may also be unduly essentialist. In our particular c ommunities of interest, they failed to capture the fluidity of local commun ity norms and networks in a rapidly changing society. They also failed to d o justice to the extent to which social distinctions-such as age, gender, e thnicity and housing tenure-shape and constrain the way in which people cre ate. sustain and access social capital. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Son s, Ltd.