英文摘要 |
Since Robert Putnam began researching the relationship between social capital and civic engagement, critics have frequently argued for the need to focus on hidden gender issues. The current study aims to reveal the gendered implications of social capital in the context of community development in Taiwan and argues that the gendering of social capital in the community is embedded in two central aspects. First, bonding social capital, which is largely maintained by local women, serves as an important foundation in initiating the process of community development. Furthermore, the bonding social capital produced by local women reinforces the reproduction of outward social networks for leaders of the community in terms of their connections with local governments and other communities, otherwise known as bridging social capital. The contributions made by bonding social capital maintained by women, however, have rarely been recognized in Putnam-inspired social capital studies. Second, while women volunteers' networks can help spur vibrant community building, the gender-coded system practiced in daily community life often drives community members to interpret men’s presence or absence in a manner that solidifies gender separation, thus leading to the interpretative feminization of local community participatory networks. Such interpretative feminization of community networks frequently limits women to viewing their own community networks and participation as contributing solely to personal social life and mental health, rarely empowering them to consider their participatory network as potentially significant to addressing and challenging governmental policy and resource structures. |