Of goats and groups: A study on social capital in development projects |
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Authors: | Nicoline de Haan |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Rural Sociology, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, USA |
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Abstract: | More and more development projects are using group or community approaches to disseminate technology and resources. It is
believed that using such an approach will provide a safety net as well as social control to ensure the sustainability of the
technology and resource. However, little is known of the exact process and social networks that are mobilized and used in
using such an approach. Particular attention is devoted in the paper to gender differences and the concept of social capital
for analyzing social networks. Cases and the analysis were drawn from Heifer Project International's efforts to disseminate
improved goat breeds through a village group process in Tanzania. An examination of these case studies shows that internal
processes are crucial in understanding technology transfer. In all groups, a person's social capital did determine whether
a member got a goat, and a person's ability to access and manage information also played an important role. Of all the groups,
the most successful and sustainable had a history of interaction and were involved within several projects in which the members
met each other in different arenas.
This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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Keywords: | Gender Goats Heifer Project International Social capital Social networks Tanzania Technology transfer |
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