Editing Social capital (section)

=== Accessibility ===
Edwards and Foley, as editors of a special edition of the ''[[American Behavioral Scientist]]'' on "Social Capital, Civil Society and Contemporary Democracy", raised two key issues in the study of social capital. First, social capital is not equally available to all, in much the same way that other forms of capital are differently available. Geographic and [[social isolation]] limit access to this resource. Second, not all social capital is created equally. The value of a specific source of social capital depends in no small part on the socio-economic position of the source with society.

On top of this, Portes (1998) has identified four negative consequences of social capital:<ref name="Portes 1998" />

# exclusion of outsiders;
# excess claims on group members;
# restrictions on individual freedom; and
# downward levelling norms.