Civic Capital and Governance in
the Waterloo Region
Jen Nelles
Program on Globalization and Regional Innovation Systems
Centre for International Studies
University of Toronto
Paper Presented to the Annual Meeting of the
Canadian Political Science Association
UWO, London, June 2, 2005
Program on Globalization and Regional Innovation Systems
The Waterloo Region
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The Four Facets of Institutional
Thickness (Amin and Thrift, 1995)
• The presence of many institutions of
various kinds
• High levels of interaction between
institutions
• The establishment of formal or informal
coalitions and hierarchies
• The development of shared goals and
visions regarding regional governance
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The Barriers to Regional
Associational Governance in the
Waterloo Region
• Fragmented political authority and
identities
• Weak private sector involvement in
regional governance
• Weak ties between organizations
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The Problem with the Concept of
Social Capital
“Social capital in the form of trust, it is argued, is
created as a by-product of other collective
endeavours such as participation in civic
associations, but these activities are themselves
public goods, and are also identified as social
capital, leaving us with the problematic
conceptual task of distinguishing between the
sources of social capital [and] the benefits
derived from them” (Woolcock, 1998)
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Competing Conceptions of Social
Capital
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Coleman (1988): Social capital consists of “a variety of entities that all
consist of some aspect of social structures, and they facilitate certain
actions of actors – whether persons of corporate actors – within the
structure” (98).
Putnam (2000): Social capital refers to “connections among individuals –
social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise
from them” (19).
Ostrom and Ahn (2001): define social capital as “an attribute of individuals
and of their relationships that enhance their ability to solve collective-action
problems” (17).
Woolcock (2001): Social capital is the norms and networks that facilitate
collective action.
Glaeser (2001): “a set of social attributes possessed by an individual –
including charisma, contacts and linguistic skill – that increase the returns to
that individual in his or her dealings with others”
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Civic Capital
• Civic capital consists interpersonal networks and solidarity within a
community based on a shared identity, expectations or goals and tied
to a specific region or locality. It is comprised of formal or informal
networks between individual community members, between
communities, or between community and the state. Civic capital
acknowledges the critical role of local leaders in intensifying and
formalizing collaborative networks within and between communities.
• By defining civic capital as, at its weakest a sense of solidarity or
interpersonal ties enables civic capital to exist prior to agency but
also accounts for how it can be harnessed and intensified for
meaningful regional governance by civic entrepreneurs.
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Three Periods of Civic Capital
Intensification in the Waterloo Region
• Canada’s Technology Triangle (1987)
• Communitech (1997)
• The Prosperity Council (2003)
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Evidence of Changing Attitudes
• “The CTT is a partnership, but it’s a tentative one because
everybody has their own vested interest. Everybody wants to
sell their land. You want to promote the whole area, and it
makes a lot of sense on paper to say “Yes, we’re part of CTT”,
but you want to be the place where the plant comes through
(quoted in Leibovitz, 2003: 2626).”
• “Now there were some people on our council who were less
than supportive of CTT but I think that ended up being because
of their personality issue and certain dynamics and certain
circumstances. Today that scepticism has diminished
significantly and I would have to say that there is full support
there once more for the organization (Local government official,
personal interview 2003).”
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