Localized Learning and Social Capital - The Geography Effect in Technological and Institutional Dynamics
Providing a concise working definition of social capital, this conceptual paper analyses why socialcapital is important for learning and economic development, why it has a regional dimension, andhow it is created. It argues that with the rise of the Knowledge Economy, social capital is becomingvaluable because it organizes markets, lowering business firms’ costs of coordinating and allowingthem to flexibly connect and reconnect. Thus, it serves as a social framework for localized learningin both breadth and depth. The paper suggests that a range of social phenomena such as altruism,trust, participation, and inclusion, are created when a matrix of various social relations is combinedwith particular normative and cognitive social institutions that facilitate cooperation and reciprocity.Such a matrix of social relations, plus facilitating institutions, is what the paper defines as “socialcapital”. The paper further suggests that social capital is formed at the regional (rather than nationalor international) level, because it is at this level we find the densest matrices of social relations. Thepaper also offers a discussion of how regional policies may be suited for promoting social capital.
Mark Lorenzen
eng
application/pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7882
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