Building Relationships, Accessing Resources: Mobilizing Social Capital in Community Garden Contexts

Abstract

The preservation and advancement of grassroots associations, such as community garden groups, often depend upon an association's ability to leverage a variety of resources situated within itself, that is, among its membership and outsiders whom it can convince to support its cause. With the salience of resource mobilization in mind, this study aimed to understand how the social relationships formed within community garden settings assisted community garden leaders in accessing resources. The findings suggest “leisure episodes” are particularly important to building strong ties, a common source of social capital, and therefore serve as the social lubricant for social capital production.

KEYWORDS:

• Social capital
• leisure episodes
• community gardening
• resource mobilization
• qualitative research