Policy Press
Twelve Using social capital in the policy context: challenging the orthodoxy
Abstract
Social capital is one of those amorphous terms that appear to have the ability to cross the barriers of politics and academia and acquire a wider popular usage. Yet, to a large extent, the recent interest shown in the term in the UK merely reflects the longer-held fascination the concept has enjoyed among politicians and policy makers in North America. Indeed, the fact that social capital has enjoyed such a swift ascendancy into the political dialogue on this side of the Atlantic can be seen as in no small part due to the limited theoretical engagement there has been with the notion in academic circles here. Thus, when in 1996, and still only leader of the opposition, Tony Blair propounded the value of social capital within a speech to the CBI, he was paying lip service not to the work of a British academic but to that of the North American political polemicist Francis Fukuyama (King and Wickham-Jones, 1999, p 199). Even so, and although enthusiasm for this notion has been heavily influenced by trends in North American political circles, in the context of the UK the ideas of Anthony Giddens (1999) have undoubtedly provided at least some of the impetus behind engagement with the term. Particularly influential here have been Giddens’ views on civic participation and its role in the reinvigoration of civil society (1999), which presaged the arrival of social capital into the political landscape of the UK. In fact, in many ways the notion of social capital has proved to be an ideal rhetorical tool for New Labour to operationalise the ‘Third Way’ project, which, in its most basic sense, refers to a process of socialisation, or the need to generate norms of behaviour of the type commentators have interpreted as the essence of social capital (Putnam, 1993, 2000; Fukuyama, 1995, 1999; Leonardi, 1995).
Abstract
Social capital is one of those amorphous terms that appear to have the ability to cross the barriers of politics and academia and acquire a wider popular usage. Yet, to a large extent, the recent interest shown in the term in the UK merely reflects the longer-held fascination the concept has enjoyed among politicians and policy makers in North America. Indeed, the fact that social capital has enjoyed such a swift ascendancy into the political dialogue on this side of the Atlantic can be seen as in no small part due to the limited theoretical engagement there has been with the notion in academic circles here. Thus, when in 1996, and still only leader of the opposition, Tony Blair propounded the value of social capital within a speech to the CBI, he was paying lip service not to the work of a British academic but to that of the North American political polemicist Francis Fukuyama (King and Wickham-Jones, 1999, p 199). Even so, and although enthusiasm for this notion has been heavily influenced by trends in North American political circles, in the context of the UK the ideas of Anthony Giddens (1999) have undoubtedly provided at least some of the impetus behind engagement with the term. Particularly influential here have been Giddens’ views on civic participation and its role in the reinvigoration of civil society (1999), which presaged the arrival of social capital into the political landscape of the UK. In fact, in many ways the notion of social capital has proved to be an ideal rhetorical tool for New Labour to operationalise the ‘Third Way’ project, which, in its most basic sense, refers to a process of socialisation, or the need to generate norms of behaviour of the type commentators have interpreted as the essence of social capital (Putnam, 1993, 2000; Fukuyama, 1995, 1999; Leonardi, 1995).
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Notes on contributors v
- The year in social policy 1
-
UK developments
- Modernising primary healthcare in England: the role of Primary Care Groups and Trusts 15
- Devolution in England: coping with post-industrial industrial regions – issues of territorial inequality 37
- Reconstituting social policy: the case of Northern Ireland 57
- ‘Revolutionising’ care for people with learning difficulties? The Labour government’s Learning Disabilities Strategy 85
-
International developments
- Globalisation and welfare: a meso-level analysis 107
- The ‘anti-globalisation’ movement and its implications for social policy 127
- Migration policy in Europe: contradictions and continuities 151
- The European Union’s social policy focus: from labour to welfare and constitutionalised rights? 171
-
Conceptual developments
- The politics and economics of disciplining an inclusive and exclusive society 199
- Green social welfare: an investigation into political attitudes towards ecological critiques and prescriptions concerning the welfare state 225
- Using social capital in the policy context: challenging the orthodoxy 249
- Participation and social policy: transformation, liberation or regulation? 265
- Index 291
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Notes on contributors v
- The year in social policy 1
-
UK developments
- Modernising primary healthcare in England: the role of Primary Care Groups and Trusts 15
- Devolution in England: coping with post-industrial industrial regions – issues of territorial inequality 37
- Reconstituting social policy: the case of Northern Ireland 57
- ‘Revolutionising’ care for people with learning difficulties? The Labour government’s Learning Disabilities Strategy 85
-
International developments
- Globalisation and welfare: a meso-level analysis 107
- The ‘anti-globalisation’ movement and its implications for social policy 127
- Migration policy in Europe: contradictions and continuities 151
- The European Union’s social policy focus: from labour to welfare and constitutionalised rights? 171
-
Conceptual developments
- The politics and economics of disciplining an inclusive and exclusive society 199
- Green social welfare: an investigation into political attitudes towards ecological critiques and prescriptions concerning the welfare state 225
- Using social capital in the policy context: challenging the orthodoxy 249
- Participation and social policy: transformation, liberation or regulation? 265
- Index 291
