Socijalni kapital kao faktor održivog razvoja
Social Capital as a Sustainable Development Factor

Summary/Abstract: Social capital and sustainable development are concepts, much discussed in scientific circles, but still without any generally accepted definitions of these terms. Any attempt to make a scientific approach to these phenomena encountered numerous obstacles caused by different and often contradictory understanding of these concepts. However, regardless of the existence of these obstacles, recently, the great interest of scholars around the world to study issues of social capital and its importance for the development of society is evident. Although if there were some consistency regarding the definition of “social capital“ and “sustainable development concepts”, then research of role of social capital in various segments of development would be facilitated, however not diminishing the contribution of the previous research results from this area. Since this stands for a great potential, social capital should be considered as a resource when defining the sustainable development strategy. Given the large number of definitions of both notions in use, and the ambiguity in the grasping of these concepts, the author provides an overview of most commonly utilized definitions that have been used in empirical research in this area, subsequently analyzing the contribution of various studies of social capital in view of its importance for sustainable development, stressing its importance for the development of local communities. Finally, the author reaches a conclusion that by these terms’ precise defining, obstacles, encountered when measuring the degree of achievement of long-term strategic development objectives, would have been avoided. The concluding section shows how authorities should take into account the importance of social capital development’s role in policy fashioning, and in that sense should take participation in its creating.

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