MACMILLAN Social Capital in Development Planning: Linking the Actors

The pursuit of sustainable development and smart growth is a main challenge today in countries around the world. Social capital is an asset of their territorial communities. It is also a precondition for national and local policies that aim to better the economic base and quality of life for all. This change is socially diffused, economically sustainable over time, and smart in its content. A significant stock of social capital facilitates such results because it links into the process of development planning institutional decision makers and socioeconomic stakeholders who share trust, solidarity norms, and a community vision. In the last thirty years, social capital has become a forceful concept in the social sciences, the subject of many scholarly works and a topic of keen interest and debate in policy circles. Yet the main focus has been on defining and measuring social capital, with little attention given to its value in promoting development policies. Social Capital in Development Planning updates and advances the debate on social capital through the analysis of the application of the concept of social capital to programs for sustainable and smart socioeconomic development; empirical findings; and a new paradigm for development planning. Review "In this important book, Nanetti and Holguin start out by distinguishing between growth and development within territorial communities. They then demonstrate, through careful theoretical analysis and revealing case studies, how nurturing social capital promotes development, defined as the realization of social justice." - Susan S. Fainstein, Senior Research Fellow, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, USA "This is a timely and important volume. In an era of rising social inequalities and climate change, finding an alternative to the growth models inherited from the past may be the most pressing issue of our time. The authors of this volume demonstrate that building social capital is the path forward that best addresses the challenges of the twenty-first century." - Dennis R. Judd, Professor and Interim Head, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA "Over the last quarter century, research on 'social capital' has exploded. Articles on the topic have risen from one every five years to one every five hours. Nanetti, a pioneer in this field, has now produced with Holguin a masterly, innovative account of social capital in development planning." - Robert D. Putnam, Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University, USA; author of Our Kids From the Back Cover The pursuit of sustainable development and smart growth is a main challenge today in countries around the world. Social capital is an asset of their territorial communities. It is also a precondition for national and local policies that aim to better the economic base and quality of life for all. This change is socially diffused, economically sustainable over time, and smart in its content. A significant stock of social capital facilitates such results because it links into the process of development planning institutional decision makers and socioeconomic stakeholders who share trust, solidarity norms, and a community vision. In the last thirty years, social capital has become a forceful concept in the social sciences, the subject of many scholarly works and a topic of keen interest and debate in policy circles. Yet the main focus has been on defining and measuring social capital, with little attention given to its value in promoting development policies. Social Capital in Development Planning updates and advances the debate on social capital through the analysis of the application of the concept of social capital to programs for sustainable and smart socioeconomic development; empirical findings; and a new paradigm for development planning. About the Author Raffaella Y. Nanetti is Professor Emerita of Urban Planning and Policy at the Univ