Özet:

This paper examines the role of social capital in rural development of the Central and Eastern European Countries. As agriculture is one of the main economic activities in the rural area of these countries, special focus is put on the ability of different forms of social capital to foster or hamper the viability and competitiveness of rural. The paper is structured as follows: the first part gives a literature overview about the concept of social capital and its components. The second part shows measuring methods. The third part summarizes the results of a Hungarian case study. The closing part of paper shows that the underdevelopment of social capital is one of the common features of Central and Eastern European Countries, which explains their deficit in productivity and competitiveness

Anahtar Kelimeler: