FYI.

http://www.respublica.org.uk/blog/2011/01/anticipating-%E2%80%98unanticipated-gains%E2%80%99

Anticipating the 'Unanticipated Gains'

A new approach to social capital 
by Adam Coutts

In his book Unanticipated Gains, Mario Small focuses on how social capital 
may actually be created through our interactions within one another and the 
organisations with which we work - often in ways which are unexpected, or 
incidental to purpose. This is important stuff - we know quite a bit about 
the importance of social capital and the effects of being socially 
isolated; but also very little about how service delivery and social 
interventions lead to a decline or increase in the 'stocks' of individual 
and neighbourhood social capital. Small suggests that the aim should be to 
design in from the outset support for social capital into the 'routine' 
organisations and programmes that people frequently use and interact with 
on a day-to-day basis providing additional benefits to both society and 
service recipient. Although he focuses on childcare centres, his argument 
can be extended to the broadest range of public service interventions, 
including labour market training and skills programmes, social housing 
providers, community groups, gyms and other such institutions. A more 
radical approach might involve encouraging private sector organisations to 
consider how the delivery of their services might similarly provide 
spin-off benefits for the communities within which they work, through 
socially-focused design, rather than through corporate social 
responsibility add-ons.

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