The Oil Drum

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Relative Measure of Social Capital by US States

I am now near the end of my reading of Robert Putnam's seminal work on Social Capital, Bowling Alone. Social Capital is one of those very hard to define subjects, but my interpretation is that it measures the level of trust, connectedness and mutual reciprocity in society. This is important for a wide range of issues from child rearing to economic development to how individuals (or communities) respond to a crisis situations. Social Capital could be the defining characteristic of communities that pull together in the face of high oil prices versus those that tear themselves apart in the ultimate tragedy of the commons.

Looking at a map of the US you can start to understand why North Dakota and Vermont, despite their cold winters may be better places to live than Mississippi or Alabama. And this is only state level averages - each state will have within them communities that are stronger than others. And each community will have individuals that have more social capital than others because of their level of civic involvement. Those individuals and those communities will be one of our greatest assets as peak oil forces us out of our private cocoons - McMansions and SUVs - run on high levels of energy consumption and forces us to live in more shared living spaces, carpooling, etc.

What is the state of social capital and what are the major measures available?

How each community deals with peak oil will be different for because of its unique history, geography, infrastructure, politics, etc. But perhaps most important will be whether the community itself shows up at all. I suspect that many communities will pull together to face these challenges head on in a cooperative manner while in many others the community may dissolve in the face of adversity into extreme individualism or an "every man for himself" Hobbesian nightmare.

It was about a year ago that Prof. Goose put up this post about Peak Oil and Social Capital (click on the comment thread ("No Oil Here Either") from that old post which is still available). I thought we might renew this conversation. How would you evaluate your own social capital? How would you rate your community in general in terms of social capital? Are you doing anything to help improve the situation or do you think that's a waste of time?