L. J. Hanifan

thumb| Lyda Judson Hanifan (February 12, 1879 – December 11, 1932), better known as L. J. Hanifan, was an American economist and educator. He is credited with introducing the concept of social capital. Quotes In the use of the phrase social capital ... I do not refer to real estate, or to personal property or to cold cash, but rather to that in life which tends to make these tangible substances count for most in the daily lives of a people, namely, good-will, fellowship, mutual sympathy and social intercourse among a group of individuals and families who make up a social unit, the rural community, whose logical center is the school. ... The individual is helpless socially, if left entirely to himself. ... If he may come into contact with his neighbor, and they with other neighbors, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community. The community as a whole will benefit by the coöperation of all its parts, while the individual will find in his associations the advantages of the sympathy, and the fellowship of his neighbors. "The Rural School Community Center", The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 67 (1916), pp. 130-131 External links