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Recently, social scientists have used notions of capital (e.g., human capital, cultural capital, and social capital) as organizing concepts to understand the mechanisms that affect life chances of individuals and the well-being of communities (Schultz 1961; Becker [1964]1993; Bourdieu 1980; Lin 1982; Coleman 1988; Burt 1992; Porter 1998). While the basic definition of capital employed in these theories is consistent with that in Marx's "classic" analysis (Marx 1867), the orientation and, therefore, theoretical attention have moved from a class-based perspective (where capital is invested and accrued by the bourgeois only) to an actor-based perspective (where the actors, whether individuals or communities, invest and accrue such resources). We may call these theories of capital the neo-capital theories, in contrast to the Marx's classical capital theory (Lin 1999a; Lin 2000).
The principal explanation shared by the various capital theories posits that investment and mobilization of capital will enhance the outcomes desirable to individuals or communities. Analysis can be conducted at the macro level (for groups, organizations, and communities) and at the micro level (for individuals). Here, I focus on inequality among social groups; the proposition may be stated as follows: that inequality in different types of capital, such as human capital and social capital, contributes to social inequality, such as socioeconomic achievements and quality of life.
Among these neo-capital theories, social capital has gained much attention for its intriguing potential to explain a host of performance and satisfaction outcomes, ranging from participatory democracy and community cohesion to organizational persistence and socioeconomic status attainment (Coleman 1988; Putnam 1993; Portes and Sensenbrenner 1993; Lin, Ensel, and Vaughn 1981; Burt 1997). I focus here on social capital, and on one type of instrumental outcomes-inequality of socioeconomic standings among social groups. I begin with a brief summary of how social capital may be defined and measured.
Social Capital: Definition and Measurement
Social capital may be defined as investment and use of embedded resources in social relations for expected returns (Lin 1999a, 2000). Social capital is conceptualized as (1) quantity and/or quality of resources that an actor (be it an individual or group or community) can access or use through (2) its location in a social network. The first conceptualization of social capital emphasizes resources-the resources embedded in social relations, or social...