Conceptualising and Measuring Social Capital as a Sustainable Development Strategy in Mewat Region, Haryana

Abstract

This paper attempts to conceptualize and measure social capital as a sustainable development strategy in Mewat region, Haryana. Social capital resides in relations of the people that they can use for their benefits. Social capital here is reconceptualised as an instrumental use of social relations for the mutual benefit of the communities. Social capital is contextual and is best captured as a multidimensional variable. For lack of secondary data, this study relies on a primary field survey of ten sample Panchayat Villages in Mewat, Haryana. Sample Panchayats are identified through cluster random sampling and use measures of associatedness (economic, social and political), relations of production, institutions, social cohesion, and social pathologies as a set of variables. A mixed methods approach is used to analyze the variables. The empirical results show that socio-cultural activity has the highest level of associatedness followed by economic and political activities. The results show that self-help groups are an important source of social capital along with associatedness in socio-cultural activities, increase in mutually beneficial production relations, vibrant institutions and strong social cohesion. The paper concludes that social capital along with economic capital can be employed as a strategy of sustainable development in Mewat region, Haryana.