Capitale sociale e individualismo di Robert D. Putnam

Social capital is a concept studied in the social sciences which has become very important in studies that analyze the dynamics of development of society. A growing number of sociologists, political scientists and economists have invoked the concept of social capital to try to answer a series of questions growing within their discipline. The term "social capital" refers to the relational wealth and value that an individual builds over the course of its existence in a given society. The individual, already, in the first years of its life, draws on himself a set of norms and values that come from being part of a family and of a society. This paper analyzes the Robert D. Putnam’s volume “capitale e individualismo” (social capital and individualism) in order to highlight the concept of capital and the deep social, economic and cultural change occurred in American society, not just in it, over the last twenty years.