Shifting boundaries of support: Re-negotiating distance and proximity in trans-local support relations in an urban fringe area in Lilongwe City, Malawi

Abstract

Social capital has become a key concept in social sciences and politics as the ‘missing link’ to political, economic and social development. This also concerns social policy, where non-state social networks based on kinship, religious or ethnic identity have moved to the centre of attention. Analysing trans-local urban-rural relations in Lilongwe, Malawi, this article argues that a static and a-historical concept of social capital as currently promoted in development economics and politics is highly problematic. Social capital is not only difficult to measure. A contextualized view of social capital reveals that, especially in developing countries, it is an increasingly scarce resource whose credentials of trust, solidarity and reciprocity are jeopardized by worsening social and economic conditions.