Rising and falling of social capital for collective action in the urbanization of a village: The case of Wenzhou, China

Source abstract

In situ village urbanization, a process from bottom-up rural industrialization, redevelopment to regeneration, has occurred in many developing countries like China. Clan associations, as a core organization in traditional agricultural settlements, foster social capital between collectives and villagers. Clan-based social capital persists during village urbanization, yet its impact on collective action remains understudied. Integrating the collective action debate with social capital approach, this study examines the evolving role of social capital in collective actions during a village’s transition from a homogeneous rural settlement to a heterogeneous urbanizing community. This case reveals the rising and falling of social capital in facilitating and destabilizing collective action, challenging both the first and second generations of collective action theories. The dual trajectory shows that social capital’s impact on collective action depends fundamentally on contextual homogeneity, thus calling into question the direct applicability of Ostrom’s design principles in urbanizing heterogeneity. It argues that social capital’s sustainability depends not merely on its existence but on its capacity to evolve within changing social dynamics. Instead of authoritarian clan governance, adaptive democratic governance in heterogeneous societies is needed for managing inherited social capital while mediating individual interests to ensure the continued capacity of social capital in urbanizing villages.