An Empirical Study On Relationship Of Social Capital And Rural Economic Development

Rapid and sustainable development of rural economy is an important means and the necessary way of building a new socialist countryside. At the same time, reality shows that the development of rural economy is not a simple input - output process. It is the outcome that the ruraJ social, political, economical, cultural, institutional and many other factors play their role together.Based on the concept and theory of social capital, this thesis takes rural areas as the main unit of analysis, Chengdu surrounding rural areas as study object, in-depth and systematic research on the role rural social capital works on rural economic development by combining the two methods of field research and questionnaire survey. And the thesis derives the relationship between the stock level of social capital in rural areas and rural economic development level from getting help from the results of the survey data.First of all, this thesis set out from the concept of the capital and the development and then defines connotations of the social capital and rural economic development. Although domestic and international research literature involving the related concepts and theories is so much, their starting point is so different, this paper will give a suited definition based on full discussion and the need of study.Secondly, the thesis illuminates the effects that social capital impacts on rural economic development from two paths, including case studies and the data analysis of quantitative survey. The first path: initiating from the connotation of social capital, it studied the impact path of social capital impacts on the rural economic development, especially a number of important issues in the construction of new rural existence. And it led to conclusions through the in-depth case studies from the field survey. The second path: summing up and improving measurement methods of predecessors on social capital and evaluation methods of rural economic development level, we designed a workable system of measurement and evaluation, and obtained questionnaire data through the questionnaire investigation. And quantitative analysis deduced to the relevant of social capital and rural economic development.Finally, the thesis leads to the conclusions according to results of case studies and quantitative analysis. And on the conclusions, it draws a few of policy recommendations about the restructuring of the social capital and upgrading the stock in rural communities.