Safe and Productive Neighborhoods and Economic Prosperity - Essay Example

 Community is a business where social capital would gain utmost importance in the initial and with the whole process of developing it. Generally speaking, there is no one country whose richness is definite and absolute in the presence of poorer communities and less educated people. As observed, such kinds of communities are clustered in a seemingly patterned way, where well-educated and people of ‘decent’ values group together while those who have high dropout probability in school levels are also living in the same community.

Several theories have been debated to explain why such pattern exists in most communities. Putnam (2000) expressed families with the same parental upbringing are more comfortable with living near each other, rather than blaming it to how children influence each other. The emergence of street gangs in some communities is more prevalent in groups of low income families with less education, while the contrary is true to families with relatively higher income and high education. Therefore, it is reasonable for Putnam (2000) to say that each person in the community is not only influenced by their own “choices and circumstances” but also with “the choices and circumstances of their neighbors” (p. 312). Clustering may also be dependent on the economic status of families.

In the case of Tupelo, Mississippi, improvement was largely because of financial status and engagement in development activities such as the pooling of financial resources by farmers and businessmen. In the development of employment and education in Tupelo, it has reached a satisfactory reputation nowadays. Communities which are well-developed does not necessarily mean that they have zero crime rates, but that does not also negate the fact that quality social capital is important in better community building.

ReferencePutnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster.