Social capital serves harmful as well as beneficial ends

Evidence

The reciprocal obligations described in these accounts of gang life represent, I must underline, forms of social capital. In many respects these networks and norms of reciprocity serve the interests of the members in much the same way that social capital embodied in bowling teams helps their members. The purposes to which gang solidarity are directed are, however, typically more harmful to bystanders. This example reminds us that not all the external effects of social capital are beneficial. … One study of women activists in Washington, D.C., public-housing developments found that drug gangs were important benefactors, providing crucial money for children’s after-school programs that the women were organizing. One activist invited the drug dealers to tour her fledgling children’s center, and they reciprocated by putting out the word that the woman’s organizing was to go forward without any trouble from the street toughs. In short, even as they sell drugs and carry out violent wars on the streets, gangs represent a form of social capital, providing networks of reciprocity, charity, organizing, and social control—albeit on their own, often destructive, terms. Where constructive social capital and institutions are allowed to wither, gangs emerge to fill the void. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1099

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Coleman’s point about social capital being activity-specific and sometimes harmful (SocialCapitalCreation-1988). — connects to: Television privatizes leisure and thereby erodes community social capital — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining…, 67; Social capital both retains residents and can worsen discrimination after disasters — John Drury and Evangelos Ntontis, A SOCIAL IDENTITY MODEL OF COLLECTIVE…, 13; Social capital valuable for one activity can harm others. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 40 (+6 more)
• ADDENDUM: Parallel to the sacrificial/mutual-aid structures in the tree and sacrifice essays — reciprocity bonds that organize a community around loyalty rather than mainstream norms.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1099

Broader Connections

• Social capital valuable for one activity can harm others. #corroborates (0.95) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 40
• Social capital is activity-specific and even harmful in some contexts. #corroborates (0.90)
• Social capital constrains behavior even as it enables it, reducing innovativeness. #corroborates (0.90) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 111
• Individual mobility decisions can destroy social capital others depend on involuntarily. #exemplifies (0.85) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 210
• Bonding-only social capital can deepen instead of heal racial division #exemplifies (0.80) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1291