‘Ties that Bind’: A Transactional Approach to Social Capital

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed a renewed interest in the concept of social capital. However, much confusion still exists about the exact meaning of social capital. Thus, to create a foundation for future studies on social capital, this article develops a conceptual and theoretical framework to depict the stocks and flows of social capital. As such, it defines social capital formation in transactional terms so as to exploit fully the capital analogy used to characterise social capital and to place the concept of social capital on par with fixed, financial and human capital.