Geografie 2010, 115, 207-222
Social capital as a factor in the development of peripheral areas: an analysis of selected components of social capital in Czechia’s typologically different peripheries
This article explores regional differences in the social capital of peripheral areas in Czechia. Its objective is to make a general contribution to studies of social and human capital and to the clarification of the role of such capital in the polarisation of space. Specifically, the article builds on previous quantitative analyses of differences in human and social capital in Czechia by presenting analyses of selected results from an extensive empirical study, carried out in typologically different peripheral micro-regions in Czechia. Emphasis is given to an analysis of problems concerning residents’ level of participation in groups, according to a given region’s scale-level, residents’ trust in selected subjects (individuals, entities and institutions) and the overall satisfaction of residents with life in a given municipality. In terms of territorial differentiation, attention is focused on an analysis of differences in the quality of social capital in Czechia’s inner and external peripheries, in other words, in areas of continuous settlement and in border regions that were settled after the removal of the German speaking population.
Keywords
human capital, social capital, periphery, border regions, micro-regions of Czechia, participation, trust, satisfaction.
