It seems like that so many scholars in social science agree that trust as social capital is an important factor in regional or community development. The people who have interest in regional development are likely to raise questions on how to make up,...
It seems like that so many scholars in social science agree that trust as social capital is an important factor in regional or community development. The people who have interest in regional development are likely to raise questions on how to make up, maintain, and enlarge trust as capital in themselves. The research questions of this study are come from this situation. The purpose of this study is to raise some research questions and to answer them.
First, is it likely that the more social capital they have in the region, the more active in their regional development activities? Second, what are the major factors composing social capital? Can the major factors be made by men? If they can be, how, who? And how long does it take to make? Answers to these questions can cast useful policy implications to the future regional development leaders.
It's been world wide trend that community development strategies are changing from down ward to upward. Research object region, Gwangju Chonnam, is also chasing the directions. And in upward mechanism there also are problems.
In upward development strategy, there are three theories: dependency development, urban-rural approach, and basic demand theory.
Viewing from the dependency development, in the process of development, foreign capital controling urban industries withers native industries, regions become colonies to great cities, and regional developments stop. With escaping from dependency on great cities, regions should prosper with their self energy. At the urban-rural access, in a certain scale of population and area the urban rural region can prosper with self-fulfilling energy. And there is basic demand theory in which demand in a region is in accordance with supply from that region.
As dependency development perspective regards the impact of industrialized countries exploitive or dependent, import of foreign technology always results in dependency of the country. For using the urban-rural access, they should revise land system and transfer fund from great urban area to rural region. With this conclusion, basic demand perspective should be taken into consideration.
The two mechanisms downward and upward region development strategies should be complementary rather than exclusive each other. That is, national land development strategy must be cooperatively coordinated with various regional development plans. In search for cooperation between central and regional developments, the following links are to be pursued. First, it is necessary to connect closely officials in central and regional governments. National land development plans of central government should be coordinated with various local developments. Second, as financial link, central government support only regions who have development plans corresponding to the central plans. Third, with disclosing standards and guidelines for regional planning in advance, national development directions can be coordinated with regional ones.
In the formation of social capital, we should consider three: trust, reciprocal norm, and networks.
First, most of social capitals such as trust have a character of 'moral resources' coined by Albet Hirschman. On the one hand, the more we use the moral resources the more resources we have. On the other hand, if we do not use them they drain. As such, if two persons show trust in the other, the trust between them becomes cordial.
Second, reciprocal norm supports trust. The reason of birth, maintenance, and reinforcement of social trust is that social trust lowers transaction cost and promotes cooperation between people. The individual in reciprocal system is characterized by mixing short-term altruism and long-term self interest. Reciprocity is composed of a series of altruistic actions. But from these actions everyone benefits. Also it gets divided into the specific and the diffuse. The specific means exchanging equal value items at same times. The diffuse means exchanging things with long-term view.
Third, a specific social network helps people solve collective action dilemmas. Mark Granovetter says that when agreements are in individual relations and social networks structure, trust comes into being and violations decrease.
For forming, maintaining, and expanding social capital in Gwangju Chonnam region, this paper suggests three mechanisms.
First, the region should develop personnel resources. Through life long education including school education, home education, and social education, personnel resources necessary for regional development in the 21st century should be fostered.
Second, the region should activate local governance in deciding, executing, reviewing, and evaluating important local policy problems.
Third, the region should develop community identity through various mechanisms. Today cultural mapping techniques are widely used for this purpose.