Approaches to Understanding Social Capital in Farm Communities of Western Mindanao

Abstract

Previous papers (Menz; Puerto et al., this issue) have defined and developed the concept of social capital as it relates to agricultural extension in general and specifically to the our proposed extension model. This paper emphasizes and describes various innovative approaches to understanding the nature of social capital within farming communities in conflict-vulnerable areas of Mindanao, Philippines. The relevance of each approach is explained in the context of the project, along with the practical outcomes from applying those approaches. Lessons learnt in each case are detailed and should be useful to field practitioners. It is not possible to select any particular approach as preferable as this decision will depend upon the specifics of the situation along with the relative cost of data collection. Indeed the various approaches are complementary and can be used in concert. The tools described here have proven to be feasibly applied in the difficult and complex environment of Western Mindanao.