Essay Sample on Social Capital: Enhancing Societal Functioning & Relationships

Introduction

Social capital is one of the most fundamental concepts in a societal setup that has been in use for many decades up to the contemporary world, referring to the relationship network among people living and working in a specific society which enhances their activities and societal functioning (Lins, Servaes, & Tamayo, 2017). It can also be described as a set of factors that enable the effective functioning of social groups. Such factors may include interpersonal relationships, society's shared understanding, shared sense of identity, shared values and norms, cooperation, and trust (Lins, Servaes, & Tamayo, 2017). Considerably, social capital is viewed as a positive outcome of human interaction, whereby the positive outcome may be either tangible or intangible but of great importance to society (Sweeney, 2018). Therefore, social capital concepts are usually perceived to focus on social relations that have positive benefits. Hence, as discussed below, social capital has significant contributions to San Diego due to the presence of the Zephyrs in the case study presented.

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Social capital, which is the practice of maintaining and developing effective relationships that induce social networks, will contribute to community development as well as economic development in San Diego. Social capital will be crucial in the process of developing policy strategies in the community as it will influence change in San Diego community as well as core competencies for everyone looking to increase effectiveness. Through the maintenance and development of effective relationships, the community will significantly grow because social capital will build a significant network relationship among the people in San Diego with effective interpersonal relationships, trust, a sense of identity, and cooperation among the people. More significantly, there will be positive product of interactionism in San Diego. All these factors basically enhance community development as they induce a significant societal atmosphere that is important for the development of any community. Additionally, the San Diego community members will develop a sense of identity as a result of the self-perception of possessing a National Football League, the Zephyrs. However, the council leaders of San Diego will have to effectively aid in settlement of the displaced after the demolition of lower socioeconomic housing located at the area where the stadium will be built. Therefore, effective social capital will enhance community development, the county of San Diego.

Secondly, social capital contributes to economic development. This is because the process of community development that results from social capital strives to stabilize the economic conditions as well as increasing quantity and quality of social amenities with the aim of improving the quality of life and other community commercial functions (Osborne, Baldwin, & Thomsen, 2016). Therefore, social capital usually aids in the improvement of the economic well-being and quality of life of people in a society. Consequently, social capital that will advocate for relationship networks in San Diego County will, therefore, contribute to economic development. For instance, the presence of a new state-of-the-art stadium will rejuvenate business in the downtown area and will contribute to economic development. Nevertheless, it is important to ensure there is effective relocation of the people living in the houses to be demolished to restore their social setup. This will enhance effective cooperation and relationship in San Diego County that will be efficient for the accomplishment of the project.

Conclusion

In general, the social capital will enhance community development and economic development in San Diego County and aid in decreasing the poverty rate of San Diego city from the existing 13.33 percent as well as improving the social capital aspect existing in San Diego. Nonetheless, the strategy of San Diego County to use social capital should consider putting into application all levels of social capital (Lin, 2017).

References

Lin, N. (2017). Building a network theory of social capital. In Social capital (pp. 3-28). Routledge.

Lins, K. V., Servaes, H., & Tamayo, A. (2017). Social capital, trust, and firm performance: The value of corporate social responsibility during the financial crisis. The Journal of Finance, 72(4), 1785-1824.

Osborne, C., Baldwin, C., & Thomsen, D. (2016). Contributions of social capital to best practice urban planning outcomes. Urban Policy and research, 34(3), 212-224.

Sweeney, S. (2018). Student Engagement: Key Skills, Social Capital, and Encouraging Learner Contributions to Module Resources. Journal of Contemporary European Research, 14(3), 253-272.