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Neighborhood Sense of Community and Social Capital

A Multi-Level Analysis

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Psychological Sense of Community

Part of the book series: The Plenum Series in Social/Clinical Psychology ((SSSC))

Abstract

In many ways, social capital (SC) is to political science, sociology, applied economics, and community development what sense of community (SOC) and empowerment have been to community psychology. SC is the norms, networks, and mutual trust of “civil society” facilitating cooperative action among citizens and institutions (Coleman, 1988) and has had considerable influence on political thinking and action over the past decade. It is generally observed and analyzed as a characteristic (or lack) of communities or societies, rather than individuals.

Collection of the data reported was funded by the Ford Foundation (Co-Principal Investigators: David Chavis, Paul Florin, Richard Rich, and Abe Wandersman). We thank Chavis, Adrian Fisher, David McMillan, and Chris Sonn for their comments on the study that developed the Brief Sense of Community Index (Perkins & Long, 2001) and Fisher and Jo Lippe for editorial assistance with this chapter.

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Perkins, D.D., Long, D.A. (2002). Neighborhood Sense of Community and Social Capital. In: Fisher, A.T., Sonn, C.C., Bishop, B.J. (eds) Psychological Sense of Community. The Plenum Series in Social/Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0719-2_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0719-2_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5209-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-0719-2

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