Community, Social Capital and Market

I’ve read an article Diverse pleasures: informal learning in community by Phoenix de Carteret (2008). She looks at social dances and local markets as “a nexus of people, place and purpose” (de Carteret 2008: 502) and as places of community where active participation in these activities engages considerable informal learning. Firstly, she explores the concepts of community and social capital, and then examines informal learning.

Since my project is about market, I reflect on the parts of this article which are relevant to the project and market. I found the definition of community, three types of social capital and her argument about market are relevant and useful.

Definition of Community
She looks at different definitions of ‘community’ and especially focuses the definition by Ife and Tesoriero (2006). It is understood as a form of social organisation with following characteristics:

• Group interaction among individuals

• Identity and sense of belonging

• Obligations involving active participation

(Cited Ife & Tesoriero 2006 in de Carteret 2008: 508)

Three Types of Social Capital
Social capital is understood as networks of relationships characterised by reciprocity and mutuality (Putnam 2000). de Carteret talks about three different types of social capital that Townsend (2006) argues. This reminds me that we also discussed social capital and its three different types in the workshop of another community development course last semester. These are the same ones.

• Bonding – ties between homogenous group; i.e. hobby, class, language

• Bridging – links between heterogeneous groups; i.e. different groups of hobbies

• Linking – connections between people and groups of different hierarchical levels; i.e. political connection

(Cited Townsend 2006 in de Carteret 2008: 508 and adapted from Westoby 2009)

Market
She argues markets as place

• Which often derived from the interests of the local

• Which Involve active participation of stallholders and customers

• Where people have opportunity to encounter new perspectives

• Where people can exchange information in lively conversations

• Where people have chances to experience all three types of social capital


Image Source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tkswayze/4238380323/ (creative commons license)

References

de Carteret, P. 2008. ‘Diverse pleasures: informal learning in community’, Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 48 (3): 502-521.

Putnam, R. D. 2000. Bowling Alone. The collapse and revival of American community, New York: Simon and Schuster.

Westoby, P. 2009. ‘Re-thinking community for the purposes of community development’ in workshop 1 for SWSP 7093 (27th July, 2009). Brisbane: University of Queensland.