Social Capital, Information Sharing, and Community Gardening

1
Social Capital, Information Sharing, and
Community Gardening
Troy D. Glover
2
Introduction

• Leisure and its connection to social capital
• Binds people together by common interest
• Develops human capital, which can be shared with
  others
  
• Connects individuals with each other to forge
  reciprocal relationships
  
• A community garden as a context?

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Community Garden A Definition

• Organized initiatives whereby sections of land
  are used to produce food or flowers in an urban
  environment for the personal use or collective
  benefit of their members who, by virtue of their
  participation, share certain resources, such as
  space, tools, and water.

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Purpose

• To explore the elements and processes in the
  production and maintenance of social capital in
  the context of the garden
  
• To examine the distribution of social capital
  among members of the garden network

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Social Capital What is it?

• A collective asset that grants members of a
  social structure social credits, which can be
  used as capital to facilitate purposive actions
  
• Premised upon the notion that an investment in
  social relations will result in a return to the
  individual
  

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Use of Social Capital Theory

• Consensus developing that social capital ought
  to be conceived as resources accessible through
  social ties that occupy strategic network
  locations.
• Production, maintenance, and distribution.

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Method Narrative Inquiry

• Collected personal stories from members of The
  Sesquicentennial Neighborhood Association (SNA)
  
• Core members garden volunteers
• Text from newsletters and transcriptions of
  interviews
  
• Stories were aggregated into a community
  narrative (Rappaport, 2000).

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Reconstructing the Story of the QSMG

• Block-busting and neighborhood deterioration
• Developed a negative reputation
• Grassroots organizing
• The Queen Smith Memorial Garden
• Displacement of illicit activity
• Strengthened social networks

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Relation to Social Capital?

• Garden was a consequence of social capital
• The garden network was the source of social
  capital
  
• Did everyone who belonged to the group have
  access to the social capital present, though?

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Communication Newsletter

• The newsletters probably the only way weve
  communicated to the whole neighborhood what the
  project is about (Leif, core member).
  
• Whenever we did a newsletter we would make sure
  we printed enough, and we would make sure they
  were distributed door to door so that everybody
  got them. So, yes, theres always an effort to be
  inclusive. (Holt, core member).
• Well, whenever we have something going on, we
  try to flier. Even the public hearing about the
  methadone clinic recently, we fliered the whole
  neighborhood, even though the whole discussion
  had been on the e-mail list. But we wanted people
  to know about it (Erin, Core member).

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Communication Newsletter

• In my building, they, we had been talking about
  trying to get the newsletter. I talked to
  someone. Lets see, I cant remember his name.
  They had a place to sign up to deliver the
  newsletters. It is a good newsletter, I think.
  But the only way that Ive been able to get a
  hold of one is once in a very great while when I
  go over to Ferrins and theres a stack of them
  sitting over there, and I can just take one.
  (Trevor, garden volunteer).
• Ivan would say, Well, Ill let you know. Well,
  he didnt always make it across the street. It
  seemed like he made it across the street all the
  time for other stuff, but he didnt always tell
  me when things were happening. And they didnt
  send out fliers and everything (Sally, garden
  volunteer).

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Communication Email

• Are you familiar with the internet network they
  have? They have regular contact with each other
  through that. People communicate, so, in essence,
  its pretty evident when you get around them that
  its a pretty tight-knit group of people. Theres
  an awful lot of interest in network and grass
  roots organizing (Jeff, newspaper columnist).
• One thing that probably got us involved faster
  than anything is the fact that when we moved
  here, Holt had kind of an informal e-mail list
  going, just an entry in his address book. I run
  discussion lists as part of my job, so I offered
  to make it a more formal listserv. Ive managed
  the discussion list since then. Now people are in
  communication with each other more regularly than
  just when they happen to meet on the street or
  happen to have a meeting once every six months or
  whatever. I mean, we talk with each other
  everyday. And when something happens, we start
  talking on the list. (Leif).

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Communication Email

• Thats where the e-mail list has its
  limitations. You really need a face-to-face event
  to bring people together so they can see each
  other, and they can, you know, put names with
  faces (Leif).
• I imagine there are a lot more people who have
  e-mail who arent on the list. And those are the
  ones that Im concerned about. I wish theyd be
  part of the list, too (Leif).
• Im not terribly concerned about that because,
  its really an additional method of
  communication. Its an add-on. It doesnt really
  take away from other things that people can do,
  you know, meeting in the street or having
  meetings and parties and socials and whatever. I
  guess the only concern is that the discussions
  that go on there, at some point do need to be
  disseminated, and thats why we have the
  newsletter (Leif). Although there hasnt been
  one for a while. (Erin).

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Communication Email

• We didnt, we only have been on the e-mail list
  for, what, a year? And before that, we never knew
  anything that they were doing until after it was
  done because that was how they all communicated
  with each other was on the e-mail network
  (Sally, garden volunteer).
• Thats another thing, if a person doesnt have
  enough money to buy their own home, and to
  provide, you know, a nice car or something like
  that, they arent gonna have enough money for a
  computer, and to be able to get on the e-mail
  list (Bruno, garden volunteer).
• Ivan would come over and hed say, Theyre
  gonna have a work day. Well, it was always when
  we were gonna be gone, so I couldnt make it to
  the workday. I said, I want to donate flowers.
  He said, Okay, Ill tell them know. Well, I
  dont know whether that message ever got through
  or not (Sally, garden volunteer).

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Communication Email

• When we got on the e-mail list, that was when we
  really started being part of the group. Thats
  just not right. Im sorry, I would have done a
  whole lot more the other three years I lived
  here (Sally, garden volunteer).
• Im not part of the community just because I
  have a computer (Sally).
  
• I was really interested in doing things before I
  had a computer. I would ask all the time.
  (Sally).
  
• You have to have daily conversations, or not
  daily, but at least weekly or so. And the people
  on the e-mail list do, but the other people
  dont, and so they dont have any forum to voice
  their opinion. Nobody comes and asks them their
  opinion. (Sally).

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Communication Email

• The lady right next door here probably doesnt
  even know that theres a methadone clinic going
  in. She works. She takes care of her kids. She
  probably doesnt even get the newspaper. Ive
  never seen her carry a newspaper in the house. I
  know she doesnt have a computer. Okay, she may
  have a TV, so she might have heard something
  about it, but doesnt quite understand what the
  issues are, maybe. So how many people are like
  that in this neighborhood? (Bruno, garden
  volunteer).
• Way more than what are on the e-mail list. To me
  the e-mail list cuts them off more so because
  then they think theyre getting all of the
  concerned citizens opinions, as if only concerned
  citizens are on computers, which is really
  irritating (Sally, garden volunteer).
• Ive really thought about putting up a bulletin
  board in my front yard a little laugh and
  posting some of this stuff (Bruno).

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Communication Email

• When theyre able to give their opinion, then
  they feel like they have a stake in it (Sally,
  garden volunteer).
  
• They The SNA think that everybody comes out to
  help. But once again, its the e-mail network,
  and maybe a few others outside of that, but very
  few (Bruno, garden volunteer).

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Discussion

• Goals achieved via collective pursuit
• Unequal access to the resources embedded in the
  garden network due to structural positions.

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Conclusion

• Social capital can be, at once, beneficial and
  costly
  
• A successful garden project must work to
  strengthen weak ties.
  
• Capacity of the core group could otherwise be
  jeopardized by resistant groups.