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The political dimension of “linking social capital”: current analytical practices and the case for recalibration

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Abstract

This article sets out to improve our analytical understanding of the concept of “linking social capital.” Concretely, the article focuses on disaster contexts where the importance of linking social capital intensifies both for the vulnerable communities and for the local authorities concerned. Through an analysis of existing analytical practices, the article concludes that linking social capital is often subordinated to the two related social capital concepts of bonding and bridging, and that linking social capital is often exclusively defined and operationalized based on expressions of organizational trust and participation. The article proposes a recalibration to encompass the political dynamics, and political survival theory is recommended as a way to address the hitherto underexplored governance dimension. Rather than using trust as the analytical pivot, this analytical entry point may facilitate a more nuanced understanding of the potential risks inherent in the relationships between local authorities and communities in disaster settings.

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Notes

  1. Linking social capital was mentioned 1518 times; bridging social capital was mentioned 1678 times; and bonding social capital was mentioned 1728 times. This amounts to a linking social capital share of only 30 %, whereas bonding and bridging social capital account for 35 and 34 %, respectively. This difference between the usage of linking social capital on the one hand, and the usage of bonding or bridging on the other, is statistically significant at the 5 % level.

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  1. Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, Universitetsvej 1, 4000, Roskilde, Denmark

    Olivier Rubin

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Rubin, O. The political dimension of “linking social capital”: current analytical practices and the case for recalibration. Theor Soc 45, 429–449 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-016-9277-8

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