Mapping Social Capital

via Cartography: the Canadian Cartographic Association's weblog:

The Oil Drum: New York City has an interesting map of the United States that displays the amount of social capital per state. Social capital is a bit of an ill-defined term but simply indicates the sense of community and interconnectedness people feel. Or as Robert Putnam, author of a book on social capital Bowling Alone says, “The central premise of social capital is that social networks have value. Social capital refers to the collective value of all ‘social networks’ [who people know] and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other [‘norms of reciprocity’].”

Comments

[roger]

Arg!!!! What does it really mean to map something like "socal capital" based on artibrary state boundaries! Is there really such a abrupt drop simply crossing over the state boundary from Vermont to New York?? I suppose that urban-rural transitions don't exist.