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The paper provides a framework for reviewing developments in thinking about social capital over the last decade and for assessing future prospects. It argues for giving particular value to social capital as a phenomenon (conceptual and empirical) which is most effective when viewed in interaction with other elements of analysis or policy. Two forms of interaction are addressed: between bonding and bridging social capital; and between human and social capital. The paper then tracks some of the developments in the policy research debate in order to illustrate the dilemmas involved in the deployment of the concept. The fourth section poses some methodological questions and possible future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has shown growing shares of employment in the social economy (or non-profit sector) both in the European Union and in the United States. In the EU, there seems to be growing hopes that the social economy will be capable of contributing to local progress on the unemployment issue in crisis regions. This paper analyses employment in certain entrepreneurial forms, usually considered belonging to the social economy, in Sweden during the 1990s. The results show considerable regional differences of employment in the social economy, but also that its share of the labor market is very limited. The effect of social-economic organizations on employment, therefore, is probably mainly indirect in as much as they function as platforms for cooperation between firms or else as embryos for enterprises by strengthening local entrepreneurship and helping to nurture a deposit of social capital which has visible effects on private business and jobs. However, these effects need more detailed examinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a concept of human well-being that integrates economic and noneconomic aspects of life. Philosophers, humanistic psychologists, and religious traditions have been very helpful in pointing out the true noneconomic potential of human life. Our new approach to well-being, the overall/ordinary approach includes these higher aspects of human life. In addition to the ordinary adult human functionings, basically the functionings Sen mentions, the new approach includes a group of higher human functionings which are called overall human functioning. To adequately assess a person's or a society's well-being, it is necessary to consider both people's ordinary (or lower) functionings and their overall (or higher) functionings. Raising societal well-being requires capital formation, particularly investment in personal and social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]