8 - Social Capital and the Emergence of Social Structure

Summary

This chapter focuses on the problem of how rational actions lead to social structure. So far in this monograph, the social capital theory has been developed and research undertaken to understand the meaningfulness of actions within the context of social structure. That is, the theory has addressed the issue of actions while acknowledging and recognizing the a priori existence and effect of social structure. What I propose to explore in this chapter is the plausibility that actions may lead to social structure. That is, I seek to develop some theoretical arguments to answer the question of whether rationality based on resource maintenance or defense, as well as resource expansion and gain, allows us to better understand the rules of interaction and the formation of primary social groups (e.g., the primordial group). And further, whether consideration of social capital's relative utility to personal capital offers the theoretical plausibility that rational actions may indeed lead to the emergence of social structure beyond the primordial group.

This chapter sketches a theory proposing how actions may lead to the emergence of social structure. I choose to theorize this process because it should theoretically (logically) precede processes dealing with interdependence and mutual causation between structure and action. Once the issue of action leading to the emergence of structure is explicated, interdependence and interaction between the two should follow (action affects structure and structure affects action).