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Initially, social capital was used to reveal how family affects schooling; since the 1990s, it has come to explain why nations, communities and individuals are rich or poor in every respect. No area of socio-economic analysis and policy has been left untouched by what the World Bank describes as the missing link to development, from Russia and the Third World, to the ghettos of North America. Ben Fine traces the origins of social capital through the work of Becker, Bourdieu and Coleman, and comprehensively reviews the literature across the social sciences. This text is a criticism of social capital, explaining how it avoids a proper confrontation with political economy and, as a result of its origins and evolution, has become chaotic

"In the last 20 years, publicly provided social services - a pillar of the Post-WW2 welfare states - have experienced significant restructuring throughout Europe. An important stream of research emphasizes the socially innovative impact of many restructuring experiences in specific social services and territorial contexts. In particular, great expectations are placed on the devolution of authority from the central state to local governments, the growing role of the third sector, and the increasing involvement of users, for their positive consequences in terms of response to needs, empowerment and democratic governance. However, these expectations are not fully supported by empirical evidence, some of which highlights how the growing stratification of supply is bringing about inequalities in access and quality, undermining the principle of social citizenship. Innovation in social services may thus involve new forms of social and territorial exclusion. While questioning the mainstream notion of social innovation, the paper argues that a new research agenda should address the challenge of conjugating social innovation with universal social rights and citizenship, through a renewed role for the state." (author's abstract)