While social trust is seen as the desirable horizontal trust between equals in groups such as cooperatives, political trust is the vertical trust between the citizens and the political authorities of the state. Newton33(2002) notes that:
Political trust has the same theoretical relationship to political capital, as social trust has to social capital. The relationship is confused by the fact that, just as there are many synonyms for social trust, so there are many for political trust such as civic-mindedness, participation, citizenship, political interest, and involvement, including tolerance, the ability to compromise, and confidence in political institutions (p.205).
However, Newton indicated further that as social trust is acknowledged as a necessary factor for honest social life in communities, so is political trust for stable civic and political life (Newton, 2010). Political trust is argued as a reflection or an evaluation of the political outlook of an area; hence a high trust scores indicates that the political system of an area is performing well while a low trust score suggests the contrary (Newton, 2001). In accordance to Ekeh’s two publics
33I acknowledge the insights from the works of Kenneth Newton, a social science professor at the International Foundation for Adult Education (IFAE). Professor Newton is an avid blogger and contributor to the institution’s weblog and to the European Social Survey Education Net (ESS Edu Net) website. Some of his works can be accessed on http://essedunet.nsd.uib.no/cms/topics/2/.
theory, Kuenzi (2008) traces this relationship between social trust and political trust in an Afrobarometer research, noting that:
Political institutions determine the framework in which individuals interact in communities, the quality of institutional acts (policies) will largely determine the extent to which social trust is likely to flourish in a particular context. (Pp.2-5).
In Nigeria for example, the corrupt and dysfunctional state of government institutions such as the military, police force34, and the civil service ministries has eroded public trust (bridging social capital) in their functions. Rothstein (2000:44) argues that “people’s perceptions of the fairness and efficacy of governance institutions are critical determinants of interpersonal trust in communities and the state at large”. Similarly, Levi (1996:46) advanced that “if the citizens believe that their government institutions are fair and effective in punishing dishonest, exploitative behaviour, they are more likely to trust others”. The reason behind this connection as Rothstein (2000:44) argues is that “fair and effective government institutions create a disincentive to engage in dishonest, unlawful behaviour because individuals engaging in such behaviour are likely to be punished”. Thus, Kuenzi (2008:3) submitted that “people have good reason to expect that others (most people) in the society will behave honestly in their dealings with each other because the state institutions support such behaviour. Several other studies carried out especially in the United States and Japan found support to this notion that the political institutional environment affects social trust and cooperation in the communities (Yamagishi, 1988; Brehm & Rahn, 1997; Rothstein & Uslaner, 2005).
However, the emergent scenarios from the rural communities in Igboland that this research is focussed on, are dissimilar to all those identified above. In those developed societies, the government and its institutions are efficient; hence they deliver the socio-political goods of governance to their people and earn their trust and loyalty in return. Their citizens are less apprehensive because they trust their government’s commitment to provide them with Maslow’s
34The Nigerian Police Force is a major government institution charged with the responsibilities of preventing crime,
three basic safety-net needs (food, shelter and clothing) to which I would add ‘security’. With these major basic needs provided, the citizen can then concentrate more on establishing new, or improving their old bonds to better standards than paying heed to petty deceitful temptations. This gives the government the conducive and friendly environment to do more, as long as they (the government) remain honest and dedicated to their supportive role, thus reinforcing the synergy of the bonding and bridging relationship between the people and their government. Unfortunately, the discussed scenario above plays out differently among the people of my research focus. Beleaguered by a dysfunctional people-government relationship, the people anticipate little or no support at all from their government. Political trust between the people and their government is relegated to the background. As Garuba asserts: “in culturally cohesive communities, even though political or generalised trust with the government institutions is low, interpersonal specific trust remains high among the community dwellers” (Garuba 2006: 17). In accordance with this observation, the weakness of the state institutions and the failures of the government, rather than discouraging the rural populace, strengthens their survivalist resolve to bond together in forging ahead through invented alternative means. Some follow the honourable path of genuine smallholder cooperative formation and sustenance where self-supporting ventures are practiced while others deviate to crafting out means to exploit the pathway.
3.10.2 Conclusion
In this chapter I have explored the thesis’s theoretical foundation of social capital from the research perspectives of both western scholars and African sources, in order to provide a balanced academic groundwork in addressing my research questions. I discussed the social capital concept as ‘ugwu’ along with its cooperative and social network processes in a rural community environment while drawing on my practical field experience and several secondary sources as guide points. The indispensability of the concept of power was also considered particularly its ascription to issues of economic relevance in the groups. Group resources such as pooled finance, harvested crops and cottage mill businesses are seen as valuable power assets to the groups because they guarantee income that enables the groups to pursue commonly set goals and helps alleviate members’ immediate cash worries. Additionally, I discussed Ekeh’s (1975)
theory of the two publics in relation to the nuances of power and its governance in the research area. This helped in providing a better grasp of the socio-political scenario that led to the development of the study’s questions and observed cases that would be further elaborated on in later chapters. Since trust and reciprocity are considered the key attributes of the social capital theory and argued to be the driving force in cooperative sustenance, I decided to undertake a critical examination of how these two significant factors are being played out in shaping as much as regulating membership relations in cooperative groups.
However, researches about social capital and cooperative formations in rural communities are usually set against the backdrop of addressing conditions of poverty and development needs in the designated communities. The identified needs are addressed through coordinated tangible supports that translate into simple economic empowering benefits for the rural community participants. I therefore, discussed the essence of cooperative social capital in the light of this economic benefit. The research evidence of all these theoretical analysis will be fully invoked later in the fieldwork data discussions.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES 4.0. Introduction
This chapter of the thesis overviews my fieldwork which evaluates the functions and internal operations of smallholder cooperative societies in Owerri North/West Local Government Areas, as they strive to achieve collective and individual progress. In the course of this exercise I observed closely certain attributes that have sustained the acts of interpersonal and group cooperation in the area. I also investigated the people’s response to the idea of formal cooperative formation vis-à-vis their ‘ugwu’ cultural communitarian lifestyle through formal interviews and questionnaires. During the interviews, respondents were enjoined to discuss freely some of the challenges that they experience in the course of their cooperative involvement and benefits therein.
Undertaking a research as germane as this in Nigeria and Africa in general, calls for the adoption of combined methods. The odds against research success in Nigeria include scarcity of print- data, social phenomena like gender sensitive issues and certain cultural/traditional constraints, all of which raise the stakes for this research study. A researcher must understand the terrain of the study, and a local perspective may be important to this strategy. As Franz Fanon recommends “African development will only take shape around the struggle of its people; that struggle is also expressed by and lived through the daily experience of its people” (Fanon cited in Nwanesi, 2006:110). For the participants the research was a welcome development as it afforded them the opportunity to express their opinions and tell their stories of subsistence against the odds of Nigerian economic hardship and corruption. All the oral data were transcribed and used in developing the discussions that are elaborated in the following chapters.
The first section of this chapter discusses the research design, scope of the thesis, methods and the nature of the population being studied. The second section details data collection techniques, and describes the reasons for adopting the ‘mixed pattern technique’ and subsequent transcription of the qualitative field data. Finally the last section discusses my role in relation to
my insider and outsider position as a researcher. It then describes specifics of the data distribution and classification, a respondent’s taxonomy and the analysis strategy. I also discuss how my personal networks supported the fieldwork, as well as the limitations of my research.