Evading Disparities: The Limits of Social Capital in Rural Development

Social capital has become a ubiquitous part of community-based development theory over the last decade, especially at the World Bank. The idea presumes that the key to poverty alleviation lies in the capacity of a community to develop collectively beneficial activities and institutions. Trust and cooperation, in this view, are fundamental values that determine success. This rosy picture of solidarity, however, has a significant blind spot: it places the burden of change on individual behavior while ignoring the inequalities and entrenched power struggles that lie behind poverty.

In Evading Disparities, de la Peña uses long-term participant observation, surveys, and social network analysis to test assumptions made by World Bank specialists in their use of the concept of social capital. What he discovers are major gaps between the tools used by practitioners and realities on the ground. His study, an in-depth examination of the politics and social structure of a rural community in coastal Ecuador, highlights variables that institutions like the World Bank are leaving out. The book not only questions dominant rural economic development theories but also explains how rethinking the way we define concepts such as “grassroots” and “democratization” will alter policy in beneficial ways.