Philanthropy Research Workshop: Measuring the Social Capital of People and Places

The concept of social capital has been defined inconsistently, even among academics, which is one reason it has proven difficult to measure. The dearth of good measures has, in turn, limited empirical research on social capital. In this presentation, I summarize my work with others to develop social capital indicators at the county and state levels and individual-level social capital measures.

Bio

Scott Winship is a senior fellow and director of the Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility at the American Enterprise Institute. His research focuses on safety net policy, trends in living standards, social capital, and economic mobility. Prior to joining AEI, Winship served as the executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, where he ran The Social Capital Project. Before that he held a number of positions at think tanks including the Manhattan Institute, the Brookings Institution, and Third Way. Winship has a Ph.D. in social policy from Harvard University.