Organizational Diversity and the Production of Social Capital

Abstract

Much of the latest debate about the relationship between social capital and civil society has focused on the importance of voluntary associations as settings for the production of social capital. This article develops an analytical framework that incorporates organizational diversity and the multidimensionality of social capital. The author then applies this framework to an ethnographic account of membership in two choral groups. Even in these ostensibly similar groups, the relationships and processes out of which networks, norms, and collective facilities are produced vary, being strongly influenced by organizational characteristics.