Quantifying the relationship between social capital and economic conditions in Appalachia

Researchers and practitioners from numerous fields are increasingly aware of the limits of conventional economic development, which is development that tends to rely on external investments (e.g., in infrastructure and business recruitment) to promote economic growth in a given area. Accordingly, a host of alternative strategies that aim to build new and leverage existing local resources and networks are quickly re-populating community and economic development arenas. Among the most prominent ideas in this shift from externally-controlled to comparatively bottom-up and locally-driven development is social capital. Because of its prominence in both academic and practical development discourses, the association of social capital with economic performance receives ample attention-though empirical evidence in this area is mixed. In this article, we adopt the American Appalachian region as a case study in which to explore this relationship using tools of applied spatial analysis. Appalachia offers an intriguing case for such research, as a powerful multijurisdictional economic development agency in the region-the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC)-has recently shifted from using predominantly conventional economic development tools to promoting efforts to build social capital in Appalachian communities. Using a combination of geovisualization, cluster analysis, and correlation analysis, this article reveals a strong and inverse association between spatial patterns of an established proxy indicator of social capital and the ARC's index of economic distress. The results offer encouragement both to the ARC and related institutions that are abandoning conventional growth-oriented practices for locally-driven development initiatives.