Maankäytön oikeutus paikallisyhteisöissä

Sosiaalisen pääoman valta ja skaala

Abstract

Land use has become increasingly important for
the survival of peripheral communities where local
livelihoods depend on the surrounding natural
environment. In the present-day world even remote
villages are affected by global processes and global
values. The decisions and laws on land use are made
at the state level and many of these institutional
practises are linked to global level ideologies and
agreements. Local people and their values are not
always considered in non-local decision making. The
consequences of non-local politics, economics and
land use justification are however implemented in local
contexts and experienced locally by local people.
Some local communities have started to act in order
to get their perspective noticed in decision making.
This spontaneous community action can be seen as a
result of the community’s social capital. Social capital
has been seen as a resource which helps people
achieve something that an individual alone would
not be able to achieve. Recently social capital has
been used to explain geographical phenomena. This
article discusses the geography, scale and power of
social capital. Social capital is seen as a resource for
both local and global communities. The interaction
of these different scales of social capital is discussed
within the context of land use.