The Development of Social Capital to Strengthen the Community Empowerment A Case Study Culture Village Phu Tai Ban Khok Kong in Kuchinarai District Kalasin Province

Abstract

The research has the following objectives: 1) To study a social capital development model and a community strengthening model. 2) To promote an exchange of learning and to propel a community to be a community prototype for social capital management. The research team divided the scope of the study into two aspects: 1) Area scope: Kutwa Sub-district, Kuchinarai District, Kalasin Province. 2) Content scope. This research determined three aspects of contents as follows: 1) Forms and processes of people’s participation 2) Methods and the community strengthening model studied to achieve the best practice management 3) The support to create a community prototype under the cooperation of all sectors of the community, including people in the community, community leaders, and local government agencies.
The research results indicated that strengthening the community must primarily originate from internal community processes, starting with quality people or resources. When the people in the community are qualified and realize their responsibilities and roles, they can strengthen the community. The second factor is community leaders, whether official or unofficial leaders, who are the main drivers in controlling the direction of community management. The third factor is agencies within the community, including government and private agencies, which are considered tools to support the community in achieving its goals.
The research team proposed the concept of evaluating the strength of local community organizations in two main issues: 1) the organizational readiness of local communities and 2) the readiness of the community. The evaluation of organizational readiness of local communities is divided into three variables: 1) Leadership and executives’ attitudes, 2) Supporting system structure of community organizations, and 3) Financial potentials of local communities. The evaluation of the community’s readiness is divided into two main variables: 1) people’s attitudes and enthusiasm and 2) people’s participation model.....