Akumulacja kapitału społecznego a zjawisko patologii – kontekst teoretyczno-empiryczny

Social capital has the potential, the energy and the value needed for development. The author is one of those who believes that economic capital is a source, a base and a knowl-edge base for all other types of capital: social capital as well as economic capital that can and also should be collected in order to improve the quality of life of individuals, organizations and societies as well. The article aims to organize the collected knowledge about social capital and to present its own methodology and operationalization of its measurement method. The article at-tempts to answer the questions: Is the accumulation of social capital in the organization or in the state justified and necessary? What is the impact on the quality of life in a given soci-ety? The first part of the paper describes the concept of social capital whereas the second part describes the core of its components. In the third part the concept of accumulation of social capital is described and the last one presents the results of measurements of social capital in some countries after 2000. The accepted method of research are own researches conducted in 2000-2010 and critical analysis of the literature.