Breaking the cycle: producing trust out of thin air and resentment

Abstract

According to Robert Putnam, social capital exists in a relationship of equilibrium. Its persistence or absence is infinite, locked in ‘vicious’ or ‘virtuous’ cycles. Using a fine-grained ethnographic account of the rise and fall of collective action in a small neighborhood of Cape Town, South Africa, this paper seeks to explore alternative forms, uses, and sources of social capital. First, I seek to unpack the definition of social capital, disaggregating networks of civic engagement, trust, and collective action, and probing the relationship between them. In particular, I try to construct an account of the creation of trust through collective action, in the absence of previously existing networks of civic engagement. Generalized feelings of trust in turn prolong participation beyond collective action and may institutionalize the type of civic engagement that holds government accountable. As mobilization ebbs, so do the heightened levels of trust that characterize relations during the period of collective action. Nevertheless, a residue of civic engagement persists, making it more likely that residents will engage in collective action in the future. Social capital may be a more fluid resource than researchers have supposed. In particular, this article suggests at least one way in which nascent democratic societies with weak institutions and scant history of civic engagement might be able to produce the type of social capital that may be an important component of democratic consolidation.