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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Trust, Networks and Norms: The Creation of Social Capital in Agricultural Economics in Ghana |
Author: | Lyon, Fergus |
Year: | 2000 |
Periodical: | World Development |
Volume: | 28 |
Issue: | 4 |
Period: | April |
Pages: | 663-681 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Ghana |
Subjects: | social networks tomatoes Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Economics and Trade Development and Technology |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(99)00146-1 |
Abstract: | The author contributes to the continuing debate over the multifaceted concept of trust or social capital, and its ability to provide a richer explanation of processes of economic activity. Using case studies of agricultural production, marketing and financing systems in Brong Ahafo Region, Kumasi and Accra (Ghana), the author documents the means by which trust is created among small-scale tomato farmers, traders and agricultural input suppliers. The mechanisms include formal and informal networks of working relations, customer friendships, preexisting networks and intermediaries. The author shows that trust is necessary for the development of a vibrant private sector based on microenterprises, in conditions where actors cannot rely on formal legal institutions at present. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. |