Social capital refers to material and symbolic resources that are accessed through social
relationships and used for purposive actions. Conceptualising social capital as having four
archetypal forms provides planners with an analytic and heuristic tool for considering the
different resources that community and government actors bring to various projects and social
endeavours. These forms of social capital are called bonding social capital (based on intra-community
relationships), bridging social capital (based on extra-community relationships),
institutional social capital (based on relationships established by the formal and informal
institutions of society) and synergistic social capital (based on relationships between state and
civil society actors). This quadripartite model of social capital was found to be useful in
analysing the different socially embedded resources which were applied to housing initiatives
for two distinct communities of people in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One case
looked at a seniors care home established for elderly Chinese people by a community-based
organisation (CBO) known as the United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society
(S.U.C.C.E.S.S.). The second case examined community housing for adults with
developmental disabilities that was supported directly by family members and a CBO called
Mainstream Association for Proactive Community Living (MAPCL) and indirectly by an
informal group known as the Parents Support Group for Families of Mentally Handicapped
Adults. In both cases, the housing initiative relied on resources that were accessed through the
intra-community ties of people united by a common ethnicity or interest in supporting adults
with developmental disabilities. Necessary inputs for developing and sustaining the housing
initiatives were also found in extra-community ties with the wider community and
internationally-based professional associations; relationships with government actors at the
municipal, provincial and federal levels; and predictable societal relationships established by
legislation and norms of behaviour. A four-part model of social capital additionally serves as a
planning tool to identify a broader range of resources and possibilities for policy intervention
and to remind planners they work with multiple publics, must adopt a critical approach to
community involvement and coproduction and should encourage governments to be active in
shaping the institutional environment and engaging with individuals and community groups.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/15187 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Chan, Helen G. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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