PPR433 Social Capital: Making Democracy Work

Objectives

Social capital (i.e. trust between people, and their wider participation in networks) has rapidly become one of the most influential and controversial concepts in the social and political sciences.

This module will focus on a range of different questions related to social capital:

• Social capital is an important societal resource that helps to overcome collective action problems, but how can we quantify it effectively?
• Are we really witnessing a decline in social capital across advanced industrial democracies in Western Europe and North America?
• Is social capital always necessarily a positive force, or can it sometimes lead to undesirable outcomes?
• Does social capital have an institutional, governmental or political foundation?
• Finally, how can we distinguish between the different forms of social capital that exist globally?

The teaching and learning strategy of the module is designed to give students both a theoretical and practical understanding of contemporary issues related to social capital.

Select Bibliography

Hooghe, Marc and Stolle, Dietlind (2003) Generating Social Capital (New York : Palgrave Macmillan)

Pattie, Charles, Seyd, Patrick and Whiteley, Paul (2004) Citizenship in Britain: Values, Participation and Democracy (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press)

Putnam, Robert (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon and Schuster)

Rothstein, Bo (2011) The Quality of Government: Corruption, Social Trust and Inequality in International Perspective (Chicago: Chicago University Press)

Stoker, Gerry (2006) Why Politics Matters: Making Democracy Work (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan)

«Back

Save this page: Del.icio.us Digg It Reddit Facebook Stumble It!