Having a Laugh and Mucking in Together: Using Social Capital to Explore Dynamics Between Structure and Agency in the Context of Declining and Regenerated Neighbourhoods

This article explores the potential of social capital for understanding social processes involved in neighbourhood decline or regeneration, in social exclusion and inclusion, and for illuminating relationships between structure and agency. Theoretical approaches in the work of Putnam, Jacobs, and Coleman are compared and qualitative neighbourhood case studies used to identify contextual influences on social capital’s sources and forms, and on the strong or weak ties involved. The neighbourhood’s potential as a source of more inclusive and integrative social networks and wider solidarity is addressed. Influences on key sources of social capital – stability, integration, solidarity and tolerance – embrace issues of both structure and agency; relationships can be recursive. Neighbourhood variations in reciprocity and participation underline social capital’s context specificity. Narratives suggest that the neighbourhood’s potential for sustaining inclusive social ties, for social integration, tolerance, solidarity and ‘thin’ (as well as ‘thick’) trust is contingent on certain resources and conditions.They indicate also how local work history is reflected in the organic nature of social capital. Informed by Giddens’ structuration theory, an alternative approach for exploring process is suggested which considers social networks as key mediators in recursive relationships between structures and agency.