Abstract:
This paper explores the relationship between social capital, 'voice' and the
third sector. It does so with reference to the community renewal of two small
rural towns, in Sweden and Australia respectively. It is argued that the
community renewal process in both cases depended on the development of
eight aspects of 'voice', all of which combined to generate the necessary
social capital to make community action possible. The core of all community
renewal is the capacity of the third sector to act as an important voice of
civil society, to articulate the needs of the community, to mobilise social
capital in response to those needs, and to develop new creative responses.
