Summary of Social Capital

 Social capital is the reciprocal relationship between civic participation and

 interpersonal trust. It presumes that the more people connect with each other, the more

 they trust each other. From this theory comes the notion of social action in which

 individuals and groups orient their activities around overlapping interest. There has been

 a decline in social capital because of time pressures, difficult economic times and

 changes in the family structure. This has caused a decline in civic participation.

 Agricultural Leadership

 When discussing leadership in agricultural organizations, the leaders have

 traditionally been male. With recent demographic shifts in the volunteers of

 organizations, more women will become a part of these organizations, but to understand

 agriculture and agricultural organizations, it is important to look at the past and the

 influence that men have had on these organizations.

 Family farmers lack the power of individual survival almost by their very nature.

The reason lies in the psychology of the individual farmer, whose concentration on his

own operation tends to distract him from concern for factors that affect farming as a

whole. This has been referred to as family farming's "non-instinct for self-preservation"

(Breimyer & Frederick, 1999).

 Men are driven to succeed, with their masculinity tied to career success and the

ability to be the breadwinner and provide for their family. They are likely to be

supportive of Type A behavior, which reveres rationality and tough-mindedness. Men

show that they are in command of the situation and carry out tasks with confidence, even

when those tasks seem insurmountable (Lindsey, 1994).