Social Capital in Finance of Solidarity

This paper aims to suggest a framework for measuring social capital as applied in Finance of Solidarity. Implicit in this conceptual framework is the assumption that the social capital created by a community can be reinvested by a group of people belonging to that community in a collective action for the purpose of achieving certain goals. More specifically, this paper advances the hypothesis that the social capital of a community can be used by a specific group of people belonging to the community, e.g. the poor, to establish and implement Finance of Solidarity. The present paper’s scope of analysis is initially focused at the community level, following the consensus reached at the Paris Workshop in January 2003. An attempt at an aggregation of the analysis at the « macro » level is made in the latter sections following the framework suggested by Sunimal Fernando (2003).