A Socio-Technical Perspective on Fostering Sustainable Community Development via Social Capital and Social Cohesion

This paper explores the role of social capital and social cohesion in sustainable community development. It exam-ines how socio-technical systems can be leveraged to empower communities for collective action. Social capital is a ‘glue’ and ‘lubricant’ of society, and social cohesion is the strength of trust, solidarity, and shared understanding. Both hold significant power in facilitating collective action through reduced transaction costs. Through a network approach of social capital and by adopting principles of responsible practice, socio-technical systems may adapt to the changing needs of communities, empowering them to solve current and future social, economic, and environmental issues together through deep cooperation.