Understanding the Relationship between Participation and Social Capital for Collective Action: A Case Study of Muungano's Self Help Saving Group System

This study is an attempt to provide a contextual analysis of the processes that link social capital and participation and examine how the processes that link the two are acting as enabling or constraining factors for collective action within the context of Kenya Slum Dwellers Internationals (Muungano) self-help saving groups system in Korogocho, Mathare and Mukuru. The four main conclusions that the study draws are: (1) a contextualized understanding of social capital demands social science research to examine the processes through which structural and cognitive social capital reinforce each other; (2) Capable agency is the missing ingredient that determines how and if existing stocks of social capital will be harnessed and activated for collective action; (3) A contextualized understanding of the processes that simultaneously link productive and perverse social capital, which are mutually reinforcing is important in designing participatory tools that are fair, inclusive and equitable, thus encourage collective action; and (4) When a participatory tool is more concerned with results as opposed to process, it creates or exacerbates existing divisions within the community, failing to achieve collective action.