JP Worms’ Contribution on Social Capital

Jean-Pierre Worms is a researcher at the Centre for the Sociology of Organisations, associated to the National Scientific Research Centre. He specialises in organisations and how they operate. He was a member of the National Assembly for twelve years, and is chairman and deputy chairman of a large number of associations. His current work is concerned with the notion of social capital, in collaboration with Robert Putnam (Harvard). In this workshop contribution, he defines social capital as an attribute of society which is characteristic of a condition of that society that provides its members with resources so that they can become involved in how it functions. It is, therefore, an attribute of society and not of individuals. He goes on to analyse social capital, consider the relationship between social capital and solidarity-based finance, and look at the economic utility of social capital.