Social Capital from the Perspective of Garment Workers in Vietnam: Implications for Workplace Well-being and Collective Empowerment

INTRODUCTION Concept and Significance of Social CapitalSocial capital is widely recognized as an intangible asset that facilitates cooperation and collective action through social networks, shared norms, trust, and common values.Putnam defines it as "connections among individuals-social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them" [15], positioning it as an organizational tool for resolving collective action problems and enhancing community effectiveness.Coleman similarly emphasizes that social capital is a feature of social structures that enables actors to pursue their interests within that structure [8].Contemporary interpretations highlight its multidimensional nature, encompassing values, beliefs, networks, relationships, information channels, and social institutions that collectively underpin cooperation and socio-economic development [7].Fukuyama succinctly describes social capital as the "existence of a certain set of informal values or norms shared among members of a group that permit cooperation among them" [9].From an analytical perspective, social capital is typically classified into three dimensions: structural capital, referring to the configuration and density of network ties; relational capital, comprising trust, norms, and mutual obligations; and cognitive capital, denoting shared language, codes, and narratives that enable collective meaning-making [14].These dimensions interact to enhance knowledge exchange, innovation capacity, and organizational resilience, making social capital a critical driver of sustainable development in both economic and social spheres. Relevance to Vietnam's Garment IndustryThe garment sector is one of Vietnam's economic pillars, contributing substantially to national export turnover and providing employment to millions, especially women.Following Vietnam's accession to the WTO in 2007, the industry surpassed crude oil in export value by 2010 [22], sustaining an average annual export growth rate of nearly 18% between 2001 and 2017, and attracting significant foreign direct investment (FDI), which accounts for over 60% of total garment export value [22].