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Lien social et Politiques

Le concept de capital social et ses usagesThe Concept of Social Capital and its UsesEl concepto de capital social y sus usosMaurice Lévesque and Deena White

Les mots pour le dire, les mots pour le faire : le nouveau vocabulairedu socialNumber 41, printemps 1999

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/005148arDOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/005148ar

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Publisher(s)Lien social et Politiques

ISSN1204-3206 (print)1703-9665 (digital)

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Cite this articleLévesque, M. & White, D. (1999). Le concept de capital social et ses usages. Liensocial et Politiques, (41), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.7202/005148ar

Article abstractMany studies of social capital define it by its functions or by the effectsattributed to it. The concept's utility for research and political action is limitedby the fact of it having multiple definitions. The overview presented in thisarticle demonstrates that approaches which consider social capital "a potentialresource founded on participation in social networks" provides a betterconceptualisation and permits more systematic empirical studies. Nonetheless,no matter the definition employed, two controversial issues remain. These arewhether "negative" social capital might exist, and secondly, when is socialcapital "individual" and when is it "collective".