Social Capital:
A tool for public policy

by Jean-Pierre Voyer

Family, friends, and acquaintances are essential to the well-being of Canadians. It pays to know people – whether seeking support to make it through hard times, searching for a new job, or simply living a full and active life. People and communities with extensive social connections tend to be more ‘hired, housed, healthy, and happy’. This is the idea behind social capital.

To apply this concept to public policy, we must clearly answer some basic questions. How do people have access to, and realize benefits from, social capital? How can it complement or enhance the value of other resources, such as human and financial capital? Should governments play a role in the creation of social capital and, if so, how can we design more effective policies and programs by taking this concept into consideration?

A person or group’s network of social ties can produce a range of potential benefits or resources. For example, social networks are often an essential source of informal services, such as child care, informal health care, language training or, in distressed situations, food, clothing, and housing – as much or more so than government information sources on those topics. Job hunters draw on their personal contacts. In stressful situations, support networks may help to find a solution to the problem, reduce the perceived importance of the problem, or provide temporary relief. Friends and family influence whether individuals exercise, eat healthy diets, or quit smoking. Network contacts may help broker effective access to health, housing, or training services for those who are unable or unwilling to access these services by themselves.

After two years of consultation and research, we have concluded that there is benefit in public policy incorporating a social capital component into relevant government programs and initiatives. Governments should consider social capital as a means or an instrument that, with other resources, facilitates the achievement of specific policy and program objectives, and targets any social capital-related interventions accordingly.

Given that social capital is an important resource for individuals and communities, and that governments already inevitably affect the creation and development of social capital, there could be a public benefit from a more explicit and deliberate focus on social capital within government policies and programs.

Some areas of policy stand out in particular:

o     Helping populations at risk of social exclusion: Individuals and groups who experience social exclusion are cut off from those social ties that would allow them to participate fully in the social, economic, and political life of their communities. They need connections built.

o     Supporting major life-course transitions: Life-course transitions (e.g., labour market entry, divorce, retirement, loss of mobility) are high stress, high need times of uncertainty and instability. Although common to most people, they are experienced with varying degrees of relative success. Individuals often need to turn to their existing social networks for support and assistance, or need to develop new social contacts to get the kinds of support and assistance required.

o     Promoting community development efforts: Under a social capital perspective emphasis is placed on finding the most effective ways in which citizens, service delivery agencies, institutions, and organizations interact and create linkages for developing sustainable changes in the living conditions and well-being of community members.

Governments have several options for incorporating social capital into policy and program development. Direct interventions actively build new network connections to support program objectives or tap into existing networks to deliver information and services. Less direct interventions establish broad favourable conditions for the development of desired social networks or a greater awareness of the impact of program and policy changes on existing patterns of social capital.


Jean-Pierre Voyer is executive director of the Policy Research Initiative. Visit www.policyresearch.gc.ca to see the final publications from this project: Social Capital as a Public Policy Tool: Project Report; Social Capital in Action: Thematic Policy Studies; and The Measurement of Social Capital: Reference Document for Public Policy Research, Development and Evaluation.