| Until recently, social capital has been perceived to be a by-product of other activities, often as a consequence of historical and cultural events long past. Now, as researchers and practitioners re-awaken to the importance of social capital, it becomes important to prove that we are able to generate this valuable asset.;The dissertation is organized in seven chapters. Chapter One introduces social capital in the policy debate and outlines the dissertation. Chapter Two explores the definitions of social capital, the forms that it takes, and the types of problems for which increases in social capital may help to produce appropriate solutions. Chapter Three explains the theoretical underpinnings of my model of social capital development. Chapter Four tells the story of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley (the case study for this dissertation), a collaborative organization trying to improve quality of life in Silicon Valley. Chapter Five presents the model of social capital creation and tests it with data from a survey of JV:SV participants. Chapter Six uses a modified model in a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to explore which 'group' factors influence the process of social capital development. The final chapter draws conclusions about how to create distinct types of social capital, and discusses the ways in which different forms of social capital may be useful in promoting specific types of behavior.;The goal of this dissertation is to learn more about processes that generate social capital. This dissertation has four purposes: (1) to develop a theoretical model explaining the creation of social capital that is more completely specified than theoretical constructs currently available in the literature; (2) to determine the forms the newly created social capital might take and their consequences for future behavior; (3) to test this model through an empirical analysis of the experiences of participants in a regional economic development organization; and (4) to extract lessons about how to create social capital by means of deliberately structured collective activities, and to formulate more refined hypotheses for future research. |
