Measuring social capital: An approach based on citizen participation in local governments

Abstract

Since the 1990s, social capital has become a frequent variable in various fields of social science research. In general, the theoretical contributions have highlighted that this resource is composed of dimensions such as networks, trust and social norms. In the literature on local participation, social capital has usually been operationalized based on the observation of civil associations, with a focus on the networks, but leaving the study of trust and social norms aside. This article aims to fill this gap by seeking to provide new operationalization tools that, based on fields such as community studies, urban studies or network theory, will enrich the analytical capacity of the social capital variable. Recognizing that social capital is a variable that depends on the context that surrounds it and it is thus inappropriate to propose a single way of measuring it, this article reflects on different methodological possibilities of addressing it; particularly on how to operationalize a variable which is both fundamental and ambiguous in the studies on local participation.

Keywords

• participación ciudadana, capital social, gobiernos locales, operacionalización.