Network theories of social capital:: Bonding and bridging social capitals

The general argument of the theories of social capital is that the actors that are "better connected" "do better". However, a disagreement exists in the literature about what it means to be "better connected". Burt and Coleman proposed two "competing" network mechanisms responsible for social capital. Later, Lin proposed a model as an initial step towards building a network theory of social capital in which these two mechanisms are described as two different types of social capital. In this article sources, network mechanisms, and returns of these two types of social capital namely bonding and bridging social capitals are discussed. The purpose is not to import another fad or a metaphor to the Turkish public administration literature; but rather to highlight the analytical properties of a promising development in the literature. For this purpose testable hypothesis are formulated from the literature.