Social Exclusion through the Prism of Social Capital

Abstract

This article attempts to bring out the linkage between the concept and issues of ‘social exclusion’ and ‘social capital’. To put it more exactly, the concept and issues of social exclusion are interpreted in terms of ‘social capital’. The argument of this article is constructed by reviewing the literatures and is presented with suitable illustrations. As there is a necessity to understand the concepts before explaining the link between these two ideas, concepts have been probed as exhaustively as possible. By taking into account the implicit connections between these two ideas traced from the works of classical thinkers such as Durkheim, Marx and Weber to notable thinkers associated with the concept of ‘social capital’ such as Bourdieu, Coleman and to some extent Glenn Loury and the idea of link and co-variation between social capital and social exclusion as presented in the article entitled ‘Social Exclusion and Social Capital: A Comparison and Critique’ by Mary Daly and Hilary Silver, the article here brings out how the issues of social exclusion appear through the prism of social capital. ‘Cyber social capital’ as the new form of social capital and ‘digital divide’ as the new form of exclusion are also identified and explained. Linking these ideas also offers the direction for a potential area of research in these dimensions. It makes inference that ‘social capital’ is one of the effective antidotes for the problem of social exclusion. ‘Social capital’ becomes effective inclusive resources especially by considering the present neo-liberal policy framework.