Live long and prosper: collective action, social capital and social vision

To understand the social driving forces that lead to environmental change, we must account for the role of social interactions, the development of norms of behavior and the institutionalization of rules and norms — the development of ‘social capital’. This paper demonstrates the utility of social capital theory by articulating linkages between human decision making at individual and collective levels and social vision, an important research focus within the emerging ecological economics research tradition. Social capital theory clarifies relationships between social interactions and outcomes that contribute to the production of environmental quality, public peace and economic prosperity, necessary factors for long-term social and ecological sustainability. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.