Page "Social capital" Paragraph 7

The power of ' community governance ' has been stressed by many philosophers from Antiquity to the 18th century, from Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas and Edmund Burke ( Bowles and Gintis, 2002 ).

This vision was strongly criticised at the end of the 18th century, with the development of the idea of Homo Economicus and subsequently with ' rational choice theory '.

Such a set of theories became dominant in the last centuries, but many thinkers questioned the complicated relationship between ' modern society ' and the importance of ' old institutions ', in particular family and traditional communities ( Ferragina, 2010: 75 ).

The debate of community versus modernization of society and individualism has been the most discussed topic among the fathers of sociology ( Tönnies, 1887 ; Durkheim, 1893 ; Simmel, 1905 ; Weber, 1946 ).

They were convinced that industrialisation and urbanization were transforming social relationship in an irreversible way.

They observed a breakdown of traditional bonds and the progressive development of anomie and alienation in society ( Wilmott, 1986 ).