The Relationship Is the Richness

Social capital, as he presents it, is a form of wealth that can compound and throw off real dividends when it’s cultivated, or wither and die when it’s drawn down or neglected. Having access to social capital is a privilege. In the business world, social capital is earned over decades, and doled out carefully by those who have it: you can’t just gi... See more

The currency in a gift economy is relationship, which is expressed as gratitude, as interdependence and the ongoing cycles of reciprocity. A gift economy nurtures the community bonds which enhance mutual well-being; the economic unit is “we” rather than “I,” as all flourishing is mutual.

If you look at the the work of anthropologists like Marcel Mauss [Ed: who wrote ‘The Gift’ on gift cultures]or, Pierre Bourdieu, [Ed: who coined the idea of cultural capital] they emphasise the importance of non-monetary capital, the way in which, what we call social capital only functions if it didn’t feel transactional, if it didn’t feel like eco... See more