Immacolata Caruso, Tiziana Vitolo, ISSM-CNR, Napoli, Italy, E. Fabio Arcangeli, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy
The dark side of the moon - A dialogue on the welfare and badfare effects of social capital (assigned to theme
1. The communitarian and spatial roots of social capital (SK). A common character of contemporary revivals of Communitarian philosophies and social ideologies, lies in the search for new social foundations by the ones wanting to oppose to the hegemonic atomistic individualism (Arendt 1958, Cavarero 2003). Most bases of the SK literature (Putnam 1993, 2000) stem from the debate at the roots of contemporary Sociology, crossing over all the Mittel-european culture, about the Society vs. Community dichotomy, according to Heidegger a derivation of the Nietzchean dichotomy, Dyonisus vs. Apollo. Searching for SK, cognitive, regional and social sciences have addressed key questions about the generation, nature and effects of social networks on individual behaviour and welfare. By now, imitating superficial evolutionary and institutionalist fads, even mainstream scholars (neo-classical economics, game theory and Krugman's orthodox New Economic Geography) allow for an interesting, although reductionist view of SK, playing an ancillar and pre-defined role: –supplying an inducive environment to cooperation, to the institutional frame for interactions and contracts, –therefore improving the chances of production of cognitive and collective commodities. 2. Hypotheses on the ambiguity and duality of collective forms. In this Section we mainly rely on: Simon Weil's (1949) idea that certain forms of community provide necessary roots to individuals; and her views on the ambiguity of SK: in favour of a livable city, but firmly against Collectivism, seen as a new form of oppression. Two alternative sources of negative effects of SK on individual capabilities (Sen 1991) are: a) the traditional community: instead of just feeding the roots of individual souls, the Community acts like a possessive mother, invading the privacy of her children; b) post-totalitarian collectivism. As for the Metropolis, is it really so tolerant towards the individual? What about the hidden, hyper-modern forms of Collectivism even after 1989 ? 3. Vento di scirocco. Evidence on the likely characters and effects of ambiguity or duality in collective forms (SK) will be summarised and discussed here, namely by use of original data, sources and research in some countries of the Mediterranean region, where the Scirocco wind blows. In between institutions and community: the conclusion will deal with some hypotheses for overcoming the theory-praxis dichotomy.
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(copyright Gunther Maier) |