Social capital in the change of the Czech agriculture

Abstract

The paper continues the debate over the nature and the role of social capital in the Czech agriculture. This issue is not marginal because social capital is also emphasized in the Czech SAPARD Plan. The paper develops the thoughts of J. Chloupková and C. Bjřrnskov published in this journal in their paper “Could social capital help Czech agriculture?” (No. 6 in 2002). Differing form mentioned authors, this paper coins dual nature of understanding social capital. This understanding forms the background of the concept of social capital in the works of French sociologist P. Bourdieu. Dual concept of social capital interconnects the most often use of understanding social capital as coined by such authors like R. Putnam or J. Coleman (social capital is understood as supra-personal collective element enabling the co-ordination of activities of free individuals with equal rights thus enabling the effective operation of certain system as a collective entity) with understanding of social capital related to social status of an individual which creates the hierarchies related to power thus enabling an individual to achieve his/her goals. Using empirical data and the case study, the paper outlines the application of dual understanding of social capital in the analysis of some processes in the Czech farming. Dual concept of social capital enables to explain some circumstances, which might be in the case of one-way orientation of understanding social capital presented in rather simplified way (e.g. if and what form of social capital was weak or destroyed in the Czech agriculture and which continues to exist). This fact is documented through the case study of the changes inside large-scale farms and outside these farms (in the field of their external relations). This study documents the presence of both forms (dual concept) of social capital. Similarly, the dual concept of social capital is used in the analysis of social structure of the Czech agriculture. It is done in the comparison with the model of agriculture in European Union and in the projections into the questions of the action of actors in agriculture.