Note that the site is in archived, read-only mode. You can browse and read, but posting is disabled.
Welcome to Anarchy101 Q&A, where you can ask questions and receive answers about anarchism, from anarchists.

Note that the site is in archived, read-only mode. You can browse and read, but posting is disabled.

Categories

+1 vote
How do anarchists define "social capital" and how is it critiqued from an anarchist point of view?
by

1 Answer

+2 votes
Social capital is a lot like capital, which is to say that it is a dead vampire that preys on the living.  It stores up our social energies in bonds, obligations, punk points, scene cred, connections, etc., and daily grinds us to a pulp attempting to navigate its flows of power.  We cannot step outside of social capital, and, to this point, all of our actions seem to aid it and make its power grow.

Good luck fighting this invisible soul sucking monster.
by (1.7k points)
within the context of taigarun's answer, i will place this addition...
relationships mean fluctuating power flows. social capital at its most general is a way to talk about that (although the use of the word "capital" certainly alludes to the flows being frozen or stagnant).
i am unable to just reject social capital in all forms because of the tendency that people (in the us at least) have for being atomized and unable to be socially appropriate -- ie we have such a tendency towards a-sociability that i want to challenge us/myself along those lines.
...