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Assessment of Social Capital in Two Rural Communities Through Application of a Network Based Measurement

M.H. Rahman
Professor
Dept. of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh

and M. Yamao2
Professor
Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, Japan

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The paper presents the results of social capital measurement in two rural Bangladeshi communities by using a network based measurement technique. The study was conducted in Purbadhala upazila under Netrokona district among the members of two neighbouring communities – a fishing community involved in community based fisheries management (CBFM) and a farming community having no such involvement. Social capital was measured in its three elements such as trusts, norms and network size across three network structures of the society, namely informal, generalized and institutional. Four informal, six generalized and six institutional elements of relations were used to measure social capital of the concerned communities. A 5-point Likert scale was used for the measurement of trust and norms of the respondents, while network size was measured by counting relations in the three network realms. Data were collected from 279 respondents through face to face interview by using a structured questionnaire in March 2007. The members of the fishing community possessed higher levels of social capital than the members of the farming community in terms of social trust, norms of reciprocity and network size across the three network relations. The respondents were categorized into four types through cluster analysis. The typologies obtained by the cluster analysis also showed that members of the fishing community possessed higher levels of social capital than the members of the farming community although the latter were in better positions in terms of a number of socio-economic variables

Keywords: Social capital, social trust, Norms of reciprocity

Location: Purbadhala upazila under Netrokona district

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Adoption of technology

Objectives:

The specific objectives of the study are: (i) to assess social capital in some rural communities in Bangladesh by using the network based measurement and (ii) to categorize the rural people on the basis of their social capital score.

Methodology:

This study was conducted in two rural communities in a central district of Bangladesh. The primary objective of the study was to compare the levels of social capital between a fishing community and a farming community in Purbadhala Upazila of Netrokona district. The fishing community members were living around closely located four natural water bodies (Rajdhola beel, Kalinadi, Panishana, and Padmai), while the farming community was a neighbouring community living in Kaldoar village located nearly Rajdhola beel. Although the members of these two communities used to live in same socio-cultural circumstances, the major difference between them was that the fishing community had been involved in community based fisheries management (CBFM) since 1996. Under the CBFM, the fishing community members had been trying to manage their fisheries resources through a community based organization (CBO) under the supervision of Caritas, a national non-government organization (NGO). It was assumed that the nature of CBFM activities was favourable for increasing social networks, trust and a set of social norms among the fishing community members. On the other hand, the neighbouring farming community members had no orientation to such organizational activities. The population of the study was 127 and 305 members respectively of the fishing and farming communities. All fishers from the fishing community (i.e., 127) were included in the sample (population-sample), while 50% farm household-heads (i.e., 152) were randomly selected from the farming community. A pre-designed questionnaire (personal interview schedule) was used to elicit required data from the selected sample of the study. Data were collected in March 2007 by a group of enumerators through face to face interview with the respondents. The data collection team consisted of five enumerators, who were the post-graduate (M.S) students of the Department of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh.Before interviewing, a pre-test was conducted with 20 respondents and data were used to compute the reliability of the instrument. A Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.87, 0.91 and 0.82 were obtained respectively for the measures of trust in ‘informal network elements,’ ‘generalized network elements,’ and ‘institutional network elements.’ Similarly, a Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.76 and 0.88 were obtained respectively for the measures of reciprocity in ‘informal network elements’ and ‘generalized network elements.

Source of Information: Bangladesh Journal of Extension Education Volume No. 1&2, 2007:97-704

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

‘Social capital’ is a relatively new concept in Bangladesh and its application in agriculture and social sciences is not widely practiced so far. The present study tries to fill the gap on measurement issue of social capital in the context of Bangladesh. It is concluded that the network based measurement technique can be well applicable in measuring social capital in Bangladeshi rural communities. The major finding is that social capital in the community involved in community based resource management was higher than the community did not have such activity. The poorer community with increased stock of social capital was able to facilitate its capacity in sustainable resource management and utilization. At the same time, due to its multidimensionity in measurement, it is not logical to compute a composite score of social capital using its measuring elements. That’s why the researcher had to resort to more complex cluster analysis in order to look at the individual stock of social capital and community members’ categorization on the basis of it.

Knowledge Management: Journal