Unveiling the Face of Social Capital

Abstract

This dissertation deals with community development and community action in the field of solid waste management (SWM) in two major cities, i.e. Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh. The objective of the study was to identify whether or not the community-based SWM initiatives have emerged through the influences of the characteristics (or sources) of social capital. In line with the objective, it was assumed that the decision to organise a community-based SWM is higher in the neighbourhoods where relatively high level of social capital exists. The theory of social capital has been used here as an analytical tool. <br /> Several interesting results came up from the study such as: (i) it reveals that Putnum’s operationalisation of social capital is not fully applicable to a different social and political settings and therefore need to be contextualised according to the local conditions in order to reap benefit. It was found that social capital alone is not sufficient to form community-based SWM initiative in Bangladesh. It works well together with the influence of kinship, patron-client relationship, and power and authority relations of Bangladesh society. Therefore, the localities with a high level of social capital are better able to organise a community-based SWM initiative, if the other factors remain supportive; (ii) failure to organise a community-based SWM initiative not only indicates the lack of sufficient social capital but also is a result of many contesting factors such as: the law and order situation of the country, power politics, political conflict and threat, which contribute either to diminish or to reduce the chances of accumulation of social capital to make collective action possible; (iii) a civic engagement, organising solid waste collection appears to be as much based on strong leadership and patron-client relationships than social capital in terms of social networking and trust; and (iv) the community-based organisations in the urban areas of Bangladesh generally function in accordance with the basic characteristics of the socio-political system of the country.