Browsing by Author "Woolcock, Michael"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Exploring social capital debates at the World Bank
    Bebbington, A.; Guggenheim, S.; Olson, E.; Woolcock, Michael (Taylor & Francis Ltd., 2004)
    This article explores the ways in which discussion of social capital have emerged within the World Bank, and how they interacted both with project practices and with larger debates in the institution. These debates are understood as a "battlefield of knowledge," whose form and outcomes are structured but not determined by the political economy of the Bank. Understanding the debates this way has implications for research on the ways in which development discourses are produced and enacted, as well as for more specific discussions of the place of social capital in development studies. The article concludes with a reflection on implications of these debates for future research, policy, and practice.
  • Social capital and economic development: Toward a theoretical synthesis and policy framework
    Woolcock, Michael (Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998)
    This article explores the need to "encourage" the development of social capital in addition to financial and human capital in development work. Woolcock offers a theoretical discussion of the definition and problems of social capital, the history and origin of the term, and a critique of how social capital has been used in development work from the perspectives of social networks and economic development. Notably, the article also addresses how social capital may even hinder development. This outline and critique is targeted towards forming a new way forward for the integration of social capital initiatives in development.
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    Social capital: Implications for development theory, research, and policy
    Woolcock, Michael; Narayan, Deepa (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 2000-08-01)
    This article provides an overview of social capital in the area of political economy, breaking down research into the communitarian, network, institutional, and synergy approaches. There is also a brief discussion of methodology in social capital research, and how methodology in social capital can be highly problematic. Despite this, the article argues it is important to overcome methodological difficulty in light of the vast potential of understanding social capital in poverty eradication efforts.