JOURNAL ON SOCIAL CAPITAL:THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL ON POVERTY REDUCTION

1.0 INTRODUCTION
This journal will discuss the concept of social capital and its role to poverty reduction. It will cover section of theoretical literature review, empirical review and policies review and conclusion.

2.0 THEORETICAL LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Definitions of social capital
Social Capital may be defined as the resources available to individuals through their memberships in various community set-ups, and how the social capital affects the lives of people in their community set- up. Social Capital lends itself to multiple definitions, interpretations, and uses. David Halpern (1970) argues that the multiplicity of uses for social capital has led to a multiplicity of definitions.

Social capital also refers to the social networks, systems of reciprocal relations, sets of norms, or levels of trust that individuals or groups may have, or to the resources arising from them. Its recent popularity can be traced to three authors Pierre Bourdieu et al (1974), each of whom has a distinctive conception of social capital. Bourdieu discusses a range of different kinds of capital (economic, cultural, and social) which interrelate and may substitute for one another. In his later work, social capital is identified as the actual or potential resources which arise from being part of a network of relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition.


2.2 Social Capital concept
Social Capital is a core concept in business, economics, organizational behavior, political science, and sociology, can be explained by person’s location structure of relationships, Social relationships. Pierre Bourdieu (1974) concept on social capital is instrumental, focusing on the advantages to possessors of social capital and the deliberate construction of sociability for the purpose of creating this resource.

James Coleman (1974) explains that, social capital functionally is “a variety of entities with two elements in common, they all consist of some aspect of social structure, and they facilitate certain action of actors. Within the structure” – that is, Social Capital is anything that facilitates individual, or collective action, generating by networks and relationships, reciprocity, trust, and social norms. In Coleman’s conception, Social Capital is a neutral resource that facilitates any manner of action, but whether society is better off as a result depends entirely on the individual uses to which is put.

According to Robert Putnam,( 1993) Social Capital “refers to the collective value of all ‘social networks’ and the inclinations that arrive from these networks to do things for each other”. According to Putman and his follower, Social Capital is a key component to building and maintaining democracy. Putnam believes that Social Capital can be measured by the amount of trust and ‘reciprocity’ in a community or between individuals.

Social capital is a core concept in business, economics, organizational behaviour, political science, and sociology, defined as the advantage created by a person's location in a structure of relationships. It explains how some people gain more success in a particular setting through their superior connections to other people. There are in fact a variety of inter-related definitions of this term, in popular literature, which has been described as "something of a cure-all" (Portes, 1998) for all the problems afflicting communities and societies today.

Nahpiet and Ghoshal in their examination of the role of social capital in the creation of intellectual capital, suggest that social capital should be considered in terms of three clusters: structural, relational and cognitive. Carlos García Timón describes that the structural dimensions of social capital relate to an individual ability to make weak and strong ties to others within a system. The differences between weak and strong ties are explained by Granovetter (1973). The relational dimension focuses on the character of the connection between individuals. This is best characterized through trust of others and their cooperation and the identification an individual has within a network.

Hazleton and Kennan (2000) added a third angle, that of communication. Communication is needed to access and use social capital through exchanging information, identify problems and solutions and manage conflict. According to Boisot (1995) and Boland and Tensaki (1995), meaningful communication requires at least some sharing context between the parties to such exchange.

According to social capitalist Caira Nakasone, the ambiguity over the definition of Social Capital does not occur within the definition of “social” but in the doubt of “capital”. That is in the causal and more over “effective” nature of social networks which inhibits agreement over a concrete, measurable form of the theory

2.3 Social capital measurement
There is no widely held consensus on how to measure Social Capital, which is one of its weaknesses. One can usually intuitively sense the Level/amount of Social Capital present in a given relationship (regardless of type or scale), but quantitatively measuring it has proven somewhat complicated. This has resulted in different metrics for different functions. In measuring political social Capital, it is common to take the sum of society’s membership of its groups. Groups with higher membership (such as political parties) contribute more to the amount of Capital than groups with lower membership, although many groups with lower memberships (such as communities) still add up to be significant. While it may seem that this is limited by population, this need not be the case as people join multiple groups. In a study done by

Yankee City (1963), a community of 17,000 people was found to have over 22,000 different groups. The level of cohesion of a group also affects its Social Capital. However, again, there is no true quantitative way of determining the level of cohesiveness. It is entirely subjective. How a group relates to the rest of society also affects Social Capital, but in different manner. Strong internal ties can in some cases weaken the group’s Capital in cases where the group is geared towards crime, distrust, intolerance, violence or hatred towards each other. (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/social-capital)

2.4 Social capital and education
According to Coleman and Hoffer (1980)’s research on Social Capital, students’ families and communities attributed to the much lower dropout rates in Catholic schools compared with the higher rates in public and non-Catholic private schools. The results also reveal the positive element brought by Social Capital to the teaching of mathematics and verbal skills in Catholic schools. Putnam (2000) mentioned in his book that Child development is powerfully shaped by social capital” and continued “Presence of Social Capital has been linked to various positive outcomes is the results of parent’s Social Capital in a community. There is a high social capital in a high Education performance. Similarity states that, parents were more associated with their children education. When there are more parents participation to their children education and school, teachers have reported these engagements lower levels of students misbehavior, such as bringing weapons to school, engaging physical violence, playing hooky, and being generally apathetic about education.

2.5 Social Capital and Civil Society
A number of authors give definitions of civil society that refer to voluntary associations and organisations outside the market and state. These definitions consist of "private organisations that are formed and sustained by groups of people acting voluntarily and without seeking personal profit to provide benefits for themselves or for others". According to such authors as Walzer, Alessandrini, Newtown, Stolle and Rochon, Foley and Edwards, and Walters, it is through civil society, or more accurately that individuals are able to establish and maintain relational networks. These voluntary associations also connect people with each other, build trust and reciprocity through informal, loosely structured associations, and consolidate society through altruism without obligation. It is "this range of activities, services and associations produced by... civil society" (Alessandrini, 2002) that constitutes the sources of social capital.
Not only have the authors above documented how civil society produces sources of social capital, but in Lyons work (2001), social capital does not appear in any guise under either the factors that enable or those that stimulate the growth of the third sector, and Onyx (2000) describes how social capital depends on an already functioning community.

The idea that creating social capital (i.e. creating networks) will strengthen civil society underlies current Australian social policy aimed at bridging deepening social divisions. The goal is to reintegrate those marginalised from the rewards of the economic system into "the community". However, according to Onyx (2000), while the explicit aim of this policy is inclusion, its effects are exclusionary:

The excluded are those who cannot keep pace with the rising standards of success: those who are having difficulty meeting the expectations that everyone should be able to look after themselves. ...the prevailing politics of community has an ideological dimension – of a bias towards social order rather than social justice — which legitimates the growing disparities in wealth and hardens public sentiment towards those most disadvantaged by the new economic conditions.

Within a social justice perspective, the character traits of the disadvantaged would not be seen as so much of a problem as would the character traits being fostered in members of the community by an increasingly competitive and unjust society.
It is not reasonable to expect those most social isolated to [connect] them any more than it is reasonable to expect an acutely ill person to resolve their illness with better exercise.
The community promoted through the dominant politics of community comprises isolated individuals who have to struggle harder and harder just to look after themselves. The main ‘social glue’ promoted is ‘downward envy’: negative communal sentiment directed at those who fail to match up. And as values of self-reliance and individual enterprise become more and more highly prized, the human attributes which connect us to others (especially to those less favourably positioned than ourselves) are being edged out. This is the great paradox of the politics of community. Full of rhetoric of community — of the need to cultivate "interdependence", "connectedness" and "reciprocity" — in practice it seems to have the opposite effect.

Foley and Edwards (1997) believe that "political systems...are important determinants of both the character of civil society and of the uses to which whatever social capital exists might be put". Alessandrini (2002) agrees, saying, "in Australia in particular, neo-liberalism has been recast as economic rationalism and identified by several theorists and commentators as a danger to society at large because of the use to which they are putting social capital to work".
The resurgence of interest in "social capital" as a remedy for the cause of today’s social problems draws directly on the assumption that these problems lie in the weakening of civil society. However this ignores the arguments of many theorists who believe that social capital leads to exclusion[citation needed] rather than to a stronger civil society. In international development, Ben Fine and John Harriss have been heavily critical of the inappropriate adoption of social capital as a supposed panacea (promoting civil society organisations and NGOs, for example, as agents of developemnt) for the inequalities generated by neoliberal economic development.
An abundance of social capital is seen as being almost a necessary condition for modern liberal democracy. A low level of social capital leads to an excessively rigid and unresponsive political system and high levels of corruption, in the political system and in the region as a whole. Formal public institutions require social capital in order to function properly, and while it is possible to have too much social capital (resulting in rapid changes and excessive regulation), it is decidedly worse to have too little.

2.6 Social Capital in the Third World
Many authors suggest that Third World countries lack the Social Capital networks and associations found in Western Developed countries, but this underestimates the nature of Social Capital building in traditional societies. For example many of the potlatch activities in which rather than accumulating wealth, it distributed widely, are better understood as forms of investment in Social Capital. For instance Lea Jellineck, in examining circular migration in the Pondokan and Kampong of Indonesia, shows that the Capital accumulated by those moving from rural areas to urban areas, is extended for celebratory slam tan when the migrants returns to their rural village. Whilst convectional economics condemns such practices as a waste of capital, and irrational economic behavior, it can be a form of banking in circumstances where convectional banking and credit facilities are not present. Indeed, as a number of commentators have shown, the rate of return on this investment in Social Capital can be much higher than investment in any other economic activity, as distributive relationships may establish forms of interpersonal obligations that are permanent and cannot easily be discharged.

3.0 EMPIRICAL REVIEW
3.1 The examples of Social Capital in Tanzania
In Tanzania a prisons has been regarded as Social Enterprise as well. It is well understood that the prison is a place where there are different types of professionals as well as those who do not possess any profession. Every prisoner is involved in a certain activity according to their abilities and strengths. The abilities and skills possessed by the prisoners are being put to good advantage and in a way contributing value for the conventional market and the betterment of prisoners. Prisoners are involved in construction works, carpentry; some work in dispensaries and hospitals, and recently on prisoner graduated and was awarded a bachelor degree in Law. It is believed that his knowledge will be put to good use as well. Regardless the hardships they face as prisoners, they work together, and they encourage each other (Mutual support) for productivity.


3.2 The role of Social Capital in poverty reduction in Tanzania
The Multi- focus approach to poverty alleviation and poverty reduction is central to economic management in Tanzania. The need to integrate poverty concerns and development requires effective coordination and cooperation among all relevant principles, a department to coordinate efforts to society, and people. Combating poverty is a critical element in Country’s development endeavor. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) was developed to address the key challenges toward poverty eradications, improvement of policy environment, enhance productivity and increase investment in both human and physical capital. HIV/AIDS control activity and agriculture growth.

4.0 POLICY REVIEW
The community development policy gives guidance on how communities will be helped to build their capacity to implement their responsibilities. The policy also states clearly the responsibilities of different concerned parties in speeding up community development in the country. The major objective of the Community Development policy is to enable Tanzanians as an individuals or in their families and /or groups or associations to contribute more to the government objectives of self reliance and therefore bring about development at all levels and finally have a remarkable national growth.

Livestock policy aims at promoting the livestock industry so as to increase production and productivity to ensure that the nation achieves a per capita consumption of beef of 4.83 kg per annum by the year 2005 (increase by 39%). This will enhance farmers’ income, production of hides and exports by both live animals and other products. There is the establishment of livestock associations in the pastoral areas to enhance their bargaining and purchasing power in the supply of inputs, organizing the market of products and dissemination of new technology.

The National Policy for Youth development aim to improve the life of youths, men and women by developing them in sectors of economy, culture, politics, up-bringing, education and health. Also to sensitize youths and the society in awareness, promotion and defending youth rights according to the national constitution. To associate departments, institutions and various organizations in implementing youth development programmes with the aim of mitigating economic, social, political and cultural negative effects. To prepare youth physically, mentally, economically, politically and culturally so that they can take over the various responsibilities as good citizens, parents and leaders in a society. This enables youths to participate in the struggle to bring social and national development, the same as the adult.


5.0 CONCLUSION
Social Capital is for economic growth; all strategies of poverty reduction toward poverty eradications should also include building social capital in all levels, the examples above show that there is evidence that Social Capital under any of 3 categories, political, economical and social structure, have impact on development outcome i.e. economic growth, equity and poverty alleviation. The organizations, institutions should provide the informal framework to organization information sharing, coordination of activities and collective decision making. The information sharing role of social capital is of key importance for poverty alleviation. The case of PLWHAs Mutual support group is an important example. The groups permit the infected people to overcome stigma, one of their main constraints, to access credit, and ARVs. The same the Livestock keepers who are regarded as poor in our communities if compared with other workers and business people because have limited ability to cope with risk such as animal disease and hence are more vulnerable to income fluctuation. The poor also have limited access to insurance against future calamities as well as market failures. Social Capital does not remove the uncertainty but is an important aspect; it may create mutual knowledge about how agents will respond to different issues. It may also serve as an enforcement mechanism to ensure that their expectations about mutual behavior are in fact realized. This reduces contracting costs.

Therefore Social Capital plays an important part in poverty reduction, because it is a resource for collective act, so can be built in our communities to join effort, through networking, sharing information for better success toward Poverty eradication.