Methodology of Ethno-cultural Reserch on Impact Social Capital on Economy

Abstract

Within last 50 years, one of the most important scientific problems, which has become the subject of scientific research for economists, sociologists, historians and psychologists, is the social capital. The concept “social capital” is not homogenous, and its etymological and linguistic explanation is not uniform; it belongs to the sphere of multidisciplinary research. In economic literature intensive discussion of the concept of “social capital” started in the beginning of the 1990s. Great interest of the scientists in the concept of “social capital” can be explained with the fact that the founders of the present theory distinctly determined the fundamentals of economically efficient functioning of the modern society, by such concepts as: social networks, trust, culture, etc. Analysis of the scientific literature clarifies that important studies on separate aspects of the social capital exist in the modern economic science; however, this problem, especially, its multicultural aspects and influence on business, has not been fully studied both from the viewpoint of theory and practice.