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How ‘social capital’ is helping preserve and add vitality to rural small towns
by John Anderson

Since the 1980s, the demise of small towns on the Great Plains has been predicted by academics and pundits – but almost all of those small towns are still here. What happened?

First, residents of their small towns don’t want to leave and most of the people who had to leave have already left. Second, small towns work well and there is evidence that some towns work so well that they actually improve their own economies through a phenomenon called “social capital”. A few other reasons small towns persist are apparent, including the reverse migration trend with people leaving suburban life to come to small towns. Certainly, the price of living here is right and many other non-economic factors make living in a town of several hundred or a few thousand on the Great Plains quite attractive to former city-dwellers.

After the last farm crisis

In many small towns, the last farm crisis got the attention of most residents and people realized they had to do something to save their towns. If you travel down the Republican River Valley, you will see some of the signs of the change in thinking that came with the crisis.

In Arapahoe and many other towns, the city purchased the movie theater and began to operate it successfully. You will also find many instances where people joined together to open coffee shops, sandwich stores, and other forms of retail businesses so necessary to small town success.  In a few towns, such as Callaway and Minden, community members undertook far larger projects to shore up the appeal on Main Street or the town square. These million dollar projects provided towns with opportunities for citizens and visitors to enjoy physical exercise or cultural experiences — each expanding the vitality of the community. Mostly, these communities used something called “social capital” to produce vitality.

Three forms of capital

Social capital, according to James Coleman world-renowned  sociologist and author of Foundations of Social Theory, is one of three forms of capital. Physical capital is necessary for producing wealth and it normally comes in the form of money, land, equipment, buildings, etc.  Human capital is also necessary to create wealth, but it is based upon individual skills, such as the ability to program a computer or install a dishwasher. Social capital is the most difficult to understand and observe because it comes in the form of trusting networks of people.

For example, social capital is found when people who know each other cooperate to complete a task, such as cutting a crop for an ailing farm friend.  We also see social capital at work when groups of people get together to put up new playground equipment at the park and thereby save the village the cost of hiring someone to do that task. What is remarkable is that cooperative behavior among trusted friends enable them to complete projects faster and better, making wealth accumulation less expensive in both the short- and long-run.

More social capital equals greater wealth

Social capital seems to multiply itself and towns with dense networks of trust work really well at making wealth for a community. For instance, we know from research that rural towns with more networks of trust (mostly found in civic organizations) also have higher levels of income than those without as many networks. Wealth production, or increasing the income of residents, happens through increased efficiency made possible by social networks, but also works in other ways.

For instance, towns with more social capital tend to have more community events (like the Callaway Kite Fly or Swedish Days in Holdrege) that bring dollars into the community. Many of these towns also kept their health care facilities and those bring dollars to town as well. Having a hospital also means having doctors, clinics and pharmacies that bring professionals and increased job opportunities to town.

Mostly, though, social capital means that people linked together will also work together to increase the vitality of the town. For instance, we find that people who engage in trusting networks also do less out-shopping (driving out of the area for groceries or other kinds of needs), which directly improves a town’s economy. In short, building social capital is one of the most worthwhile objectives towns on the Great Plains can pursue.

Watch your language

Learning from successful towns helps improve any town’s stocks of social capital and vitality. In general, it is a good idea to join groups, encourage the formation of groups and attend any activities sponsored by groups because that all helps build social capital. But beyond forming and fostering civic group activities, it is important to cultivate the language and actions that build trust. Positive talk is important. Research from UNK has found that successful towns talk in a pragmatic manner; they talk about getting things done. On the other hand, towns that struggle tend to have people who talk about local politics in terms of personalities and old histories!  If you want to cooperate and prosper, it is certainly better to foster ways of talking that focus upon getting things done.

Inclusion is another important aspect of social capital. We know that some trusting networks may close newcomers out of engagement. That may actually be one of the deadliest sins a trusting network can commit, because it limits the ability of people to get things done by limiting who engages. In successful towns, efforts are made to include and recruit new people into the networks. If ever a group is bound to an early death, it will occur because it cannot attract new members and the same is true for towns and villages. New people bring new ideas, but efforts to be inclusive need to be almost “over the top” because it is hard to truly welcome someone.  I will always remember the pastor who said, “We know that a Welcome Wagon visit isn’t enough. We have to welcome and then find a way to get new people engaged in the community. Too often, we wait for people to step forward while they wait to be asked!”

Determined cooperators better than rugged individualists

Small town life on the Great Plains can be warm and friendly as well as successful.  It seems that the real hallmark of American community life and its success is the determined cooperators who live in small towns, not the rugged individualists who just take care of themselves and their kin. The good news is that Nebraska’s rural communities have plenty of social capital – the good stuff that makes communities vital.  Maybe we just need to recognize it, study it and put it into practice as often as we can!

John Anderson lives in Holdrege and is a professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska's Kearney campus.

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