Human and social capital in Soweto in 1999: Report on a field study

This article summarises data that were gathered in a 1 000-household survey conducted in Soweto in mid-1999, the purpose of which was to test some hypotheses on the interrelationships between certain kinds of human capital and social capital. Information was collected on education and other forms of human capital, as well as on a number of social capital factors under the categories of household composition, group membership, values and various forms of trust. Household expenditure was also explored in detail, both as a proxy for household income and in order to determine current investment in human and social capital. The article contains the tabulations of all the information gathered, plus a number of cross-tabulations showing links that are of possible interest. The statistics are adjusted for survey design, and are thus applicable to Soweto as a whole.     

The role of human and social capital in growth: extending our understanding

Human capital, institutions and social capital are now all recognisedas significant factors of growth. They have largely been studiedseparately, and although they present sufficient common characteristicsto be conceptualised as one main category distinct from physicalcapital, it may still be more important to focus on the linksbetween their specific sub-categories. Direct links with incomemay be spurious, as there appears to be a ‘web of associations’between the sub-categories, which would benefit from furtherempirical investigation. This paper reviews the literature onhuman capital, institutions and social capital, extracting threesub-categories of human capital (human skills capital, stock-of-knowledgeand entrepreneurship) and two of social capital (low- and high-rationalisation).Specific areas are then suggested for further empirical study.