Title: Building social capital framework in organisations: exploring 'unseen' social capital in participatory decision-making

Authors: Sam Wong

Addresses: School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK

Abstract: Drawing on an ethnographic research on Mainland Chinese migrants in Hong Kong, this paper challenges the |design principles| in building social capital. It argues that, without adequate understanding of the context and process of social interactions, these principles can destroy poor people|s social networks. The concept of |unseen| social capital offers an alternative to conceptualising social relations. This paper suggests that effective institutional interventions lie in our understanding of: history and culture of social cooperation; existing relations of reciprocity; people|s livelihood priorities; individual preferred institutional environment; the interplay between new and old institutions.

Keywords: social capital; participation; institutions; social embeddedness; governance; Elinor Ostrom; design principles; collective action; migration; China; decision making; ethnography; social networks; Chinese migrants; Hong Kong; poverty; poor people; reciprocity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2008.019783

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2008 Vol.9 No.5, pp.481 - 508

Published online: 30 Jul 2008 *

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