In Italy, social capital can bridge disconnected communities and encourage innovation

Economic performance is highly dependent upon underlying social and institutional structures. Riccardo Crescenzi and Luisa Gagliardi write that Italy has proven a very interesting ‘laboratory’ to test this link by looking at the impact of different forms of social capital on innovation. Although social structures and behaviours tend to be resilient and difficult to alter, recent research suggests that forms of cooperative behaviour and open networking should be encouraged in order to boost innovation and change.