Bridging social capital theory and practice: Evidence from community-managed water treatment plants in Honduras

Since social capital permeated the conceptualization of community in the early 1990s, evidence has mounted as to its significance for water and sanitation projects. But understanding how to apply knowledge of social capital towards sustainable development has lagged far behind. To address this gap, we combined insights from household surveys, semi-structured interviews, performance evaluations, and extensive field observations into comparative case narratives of six community-managed drinking water treatment plants built through an NGO initiative in Honduras. The aim was to not only measure social capital but to use those measurements as a framework to understand how social capital affected each project. Our findings suggest that social capital amplified or hindered plant performance through three key mediating mechanisms: Resource mobilization; resilience to change and conflict; and participation and communication. Plant performance, in turn, influenced community social capital by affecting the relationship between the NGO and community and community residents' trust in the project. These mechanisms constitute a feedback loop by which relative levels of social capital and water system operation are mutually reinforcing. Drawing on our results, we propose four accessible proxies and four initial strategies practitioners can use to operationalize social capital scholarship and identify and disrupt negative patterns during the project cycle. We encourage additional translational research to leverage the ever-growing knowledge of social capital into improved outcomes in practice.

Automated summary

Our study found that social capital influences the performance of water treatment plants through three key mediating mechanisms: resource mobilization, resilience to change and conflict, and participation and communication. These mechanisms create a feedback loop between social capital levels and water system operation, with plant performance affecting community social capital. We propose accessible proxies and initial strategies for practitioners to operationalize social capital scholarship and advocate for further translational research to improve outcomes in practice.