Researching social capital in local environmental policy contexts

In recent years considerable attention has been paid to the concept of social capital in attempting to explain the success or failure of policy delivery within the modern state. Much of the resulting research has, however, been conducted within a developing countries context. This article seeks to examine the concept of social capital within the context of contemporary Britain. It explores the existence and effect of social capital through case studies in three local environmental policy contexts. In doing so, the article suggests that the potential to develop social capital may be affected by both the underlying nature of collective action problems and by the historic pattern of policy delivery by the local state.