Routledge Social Capital and Participation in Everyday Life: 23 (Routledge/ECPR Studies in European Political Science)

Product Description This timely volume puts emphasis on the effect of social capital on everyday life: how the routines of daily life lead people to get involved in their communities. Focussing on its micro-level causes and consequences, the book's international contributors argue that social capital is fundamentally concerned with the value of social networks and about how people interact with each other. The book suggests that different modes of participation have different consequences for creating - or destroying - a sense of community or participation. The diversity of countries, institutions and groups dealt with - from Indian castes to Dutch churches, from highly competent 'everyday makers' in Scandinavia to politics-avoiding Belgian women and Irish villagers - offers fascinating case studies, and theoretical reflections for the present debates about civil society and democracy. Review "[This book] brings together an international portfolio of research to explore the development and consequences of social capital in everyday life....The collective work is...a significant contribution to debates over social capital. It leads us toward more nuanced articulations of the concept, at the same time, it usefullly undermines the idea that social capital can be unproblematically viewed as some form of social elixir....It is a significant volume, both for its theoretical claims and for the range of methodological strategies its contributors employ." -"VOLUNTAS, International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations