This study aims to identify the relationship between social capital and rural development. Tentatively, this study hypothesizes that social capital has a close relationship to the development of rural communities. Therefore, the deterioration of social capital must result in the deterioration of rural communities.
This study is composed of three parts. Fist part is to review and to make a new definition of social capital in the Korean context, and to identify the forms of social capital in social groups and its operational mechanism in rural Korea. Second part is to identify indicators for measuring social capital and to measure the social capital of social groups. Third part is to identify the role and function of social capital for the development of rural communities in Korea.
Conventionally, social capital has been conceptualized as "the norms and social relations embedded in the social structure of society that enable people to coordinate action and to achieve desired goals." Some studies identified social capital with the social group and voluntary associations. However, this concept is too vague and obscure to grasp the reality of social capital. Therefore, this study re-conceptualizes social capital, which is measurable and testifiable in the rural context of Korea.
This study defines social capital as "an ability enabling people to take action for achieving desired goals in social groups or social networks", and this ability should be created through social interactions such as social exchange and compensation, cooperation, competition, and conflict.
Rural village as a community is the complex of various social groups. Any people in a rural community must belong to more than one social group, and make daily lives through social interaction with the members of social groups. Under this definition, this study identifies that social capital in rural Korea has been pervasive, embedding in social groups and enabling social groups and rural communities to be operated. However, social capital in traditional social groups is shading away to some degree in the process of modernization. In particular, when government policies for rural development are introduced, the property of traditional social capital is shading away.
Hypothetical indicators were set for measuring social capital by each basic concept of social capital: social exchange and compensation, cooperation, competition and conflict. Next step was to verify the hypothetical social capital indicators. Finally, each basic conceptual social capital had 4 to 6 social capital indicators.
The social capital was measured from 6 farming groups producing strawberry and water melon. The farming groups with better performance shows a higher degree of social capital index in the basic concept of social capital: social exchange and compensation, cooperation and competition. However, the conflict related social capital index was higher in the farming groups with poor performance.
In corelation analysis, social capital could explain the income of farming group members by 13.7 percent. However, social capital could explain the daily activities of farming group members by 51.4 percent. Social capital is an important property for the members of farming group in income earning and daily life.
One of the important findings of this study is that the highly developed village communities accumulate more social capital than lower developed village communities. This mans that any rural community accumulating high social capital could launch development project with good cooperation and trust and lower degree of conflicts among members. Instead, any rural community with poor social capital accumulation must face difficulties with poor degree of cooperation, trust, and high degree of conflicts among members.
A traditional social organization in a rural community has a strong ties among the members of the social groups and among social groups in the community. Therefore, bonding social capital and bridging social capital were pervasive property in traditional rural communities. However, when government projects are introduced into rural communities, conflicts arise among social groups in the community as the social group monopolizes community resources dominantly. This study also found that the linking social capital is important for rural community development since the rural community could obtain valuable resources, information, technology from outside organizations. Therefore, fostering bonding, bridging and linking social capital is important when government introduce any development projects into rural communities.
As a conclusion, social capital is an essential for rural community development. This study suggests followings to foster social capital in rural communities. First, partnership is important between local government and rural community to foster community leadership and community empowerment, and to induce participatory development for launching development projects. Secondly, a consulting consortium participating with local government bodies, local companies, universities, research institutes and experts is necessary to assist rural community for launching development projects and to accumulate social capital. Thirdly, NGO and NPO must be fostered to assist rural communities in remote areas aiming to foster leadership and assist to accumulate social capital.
Principle researcher: Chung Ki Whan, Ph.D.
e-mail address: kwchung@krei.re.kr