An approach to the measurement of individual social capital

Abstract

This is a draft version of a contribution to the conference volume following the 1999 SCALE conference on social capital (Amsterdam, december 9-11). It presents a conceptual approach to the measurement of social capital as defined on the level of individuals, with the aim to develop a yardstick for social capital that can be used in prospective studies investigating its productivity and goal specificity. It discusses several theoretical choices that should be made before starting measurements, and introduces an empirical approach to the construction of domain specific social capital measures.