Moving from the stock of social capital to the flow of benefits: The role of agency

Comparing results for 60 villages in Rajasthan, India, it is seen that havi ng a high level of social capital does not always help to achieve high deve lopment performance. Stocks of social capital need to be drawn upon activel y, and capable agency is necessary in addition to high social capital. Loca lly relevant scales of development performance and social capital are devis ed for making this comparison. Variables corresponding to other bodies of e xplanation, including extent of commercialization, relative stratification, and relative need are also examined, but a combination of high social capi tal and capable agency is found to be associated most closely with high dev elopment performance. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.