Social Capital in the Lived Experiences of Community Gardeners

Abstract

In this narrative inquiry, I explored a community garden as a social context in which social capital was produced, accessed, and used by a social network of community gardeners. In particular, I focused on the distribution of social capital among members of the garden group. My findings suggest social capital can be both a benefit and cost, depending upon the position a social actor occupies within a functioning social network. Based upon this finding, I encourage leisure researchers to critically analyze social capital and study its potential for inequitable or even corrupt application, as opposed to focusing exclusively on its collective value.

Keywords:

• social capital
• community garden
• narrative inquiry
• grassroots organizing
• inequality
• race