Cultural Pluralism and Social Capital in Garden City, Kansas
Issue Date
2008-01-01Author
DesBaillets, Molly B.
Publisher
University of Kansas
Format
101 pages
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
M.A.
Discipline
Anthropology
Rights
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
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Show full item recordAbstract
Social capital is defined as: networks that enable access to resources--like getting a job through a neighborhood friend--and is associated with well-functioning societies. Robert Putnam's 2007 article, "E Pluribus Unum," characterizes ethnically diverse communities as inherently low in social capital. I went to Garden City, Kansas, a majority-minority community, to assess the function of social capital in a specific context. I used ethnographic data from the summer of 2007 and the Changing Relations Project to compare changes in social capital over time. The World Bank's measures of social capital--networks, cooperation, trust, and inclusion--were used to assess social capital in Garden City. My findings led me to conclude that large influxes of diverse people produced context-specific social capital in Garden City, contrary to Putnam's hypothesis which associates cultural pluralism with low social capital. Recommendations to further strengthen specific forms of social capital in Garden City follow the conclusions.
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- Theses [3710]
- Anthropology Dissertations and Theses [107]
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