As a source for relationships between individuals: social capital and sense of community

Abstract

Determination of community social dynamics in a society is recognized as increasingly important for sociology for the last decades. Studying community social dynamics occurs under a variety of headings. These are; ‘sense of community’, ‘community competence’, ‘neighborhood relations’, ‘community cohesiveness’, ‘community capacity’ and ‘social capital’. The newest and latest heading among these is social capital. Sense of community is more established and has been researched increasingly for a long time. Many outcomes of individual social life are thought to be related to social capital and sense of community. These outcomes include quality of life, income inequality, life expectancy, marital relationships, kinship relationships, and job relationships. Social capital is a concept in variety of social sciences that refers to connections within and between social networks. Sense of community is a concept which focuses on the experience of community rather than its structure, formation, settings or other features. In this framework, the scope of the study is to define social capital and sense of community in general. Description of social capital and sense of community key concepts and determination of their components form the content of the study. Subject and scope of the study were determined, the basis of the study can be summarized in the following sentence; “Relationships are crucial”.