Violent Conflict and the Transformation of Social Capital

"Armed conflict within a state weakens its social fabric and divides the population by undermining interpersonal and communal group trust, destroying the norms and values that underlie cooperation and collective action for the common good, and potentially perverting the mobilization of social relationships away from cooperative development and toward communal strife."'Violent Conflict and the Transformation of Social Capital' is an attempt to better understand the interactions between armed conflict and social capital. The World Bank's Post-Conflict Unit (PCU) undertook an investigation of four conflict-effected countries and their changing social capital dynamics. The initial phase examined Cambodia and Rwanda as case studies and the second phase studied social capital transformations and conflict in Guatemala and Somalia.Based on the four-country project, this book discusses: changes in social capital due to conditions of conflict; the interaction between social capital and conflict; and methods for civil society, government, and international actors to nurture social capital for conflict prevention rehabilitation and reconciliation measures. The types of conflict experienced, definitions and indicators of social capital, and study conclusions are compared. In the final section, recommendations for social policy and practices emerging from these studies are presented.'Violent Conflict and the Transformation of Social Capital' is an invaluable resource for policy and operational specialists working in conflict-effected countries.