Social Capital and Community Supportsfor Low Income Families

Abstract The Personal Responsibility, Work Opportunity and Medicaid Restructuring Act of 1996 changed welfare dramatically. This article explores the concept of social capital, illustrating how social and cultural capital are important factors that make the difference between persistent and temporary poverty. Through research in Wisconsin and Philadelphia, this article shows that social capital provides both barrier and bridge to families trying to survive in a changed policy context. However, just as programs focusing exclusively on work experience, developing human capital, or providing additional income fail to produce results for everyone on public assistance, programs concentrating exclusively on social or cultural capital are also doomed to failure.