Understanding the causes and mechanisms of Social Capital's effect on Regional Development: An Assessment of Community-Led Development in Ireland

My doctoral proposal aims to explore the effect of unequal distributions of Collective Social Capital in the context of Rural Development and how this contributes to Regional Inequality. If, as I contend, Social Capital is an important input into rural development, it will change the manner in which current development policy is understood and how resources are allocated. For example, at present development funding is allocated based on economic need, political
influence or strength of an application. However, this may not be the optimal intervention and it may be the case that development should focus on either allocating supports to areas with high Social Capital and/or tailor supports that specifically build Social Capital instead of Physical or Human Capital. This understanding has been hampered in the past through a number of criticisms given to Social Capital theory such as lack of multivariate analysis, circular reasoning, and inaccuracy of survey data. My undergraduate dissertation sought to solve some of these factors by creating a national database that measured concepts that the literature proposed explained the allocation of regional development funding. This explored the possibility of a structural model controlling for other possible explanations such as economic factors, geography, and political influence. My proposed doctoral research would build on this by extending the time period and tightening the causal methodology. It also seeks to close the circular reasoning loop through the use of Community-led Rural Development funding as a measurement tool.