capital

Capital is the analytical concept to analyse the >capacity of actors in EE. In economic systems, capital is a stock that measures the relative potential for >action among competing actors, given a certain environment. In networks, this implies that capital always corresponds to a certain distribution of rights to action among the population. Furthermore, capital is valuated in the complex interdependencies of >competition, such that the individual value is also influenced by the competitive context of systems: For example, the valuation of capital in the planned economies was completely changed when these opened up to market competition.

In most simple terms, in EE we distinguish between real capital, financial capital, human capital, social capital and nature capital. For example, real capital is the physical basis for applying >technology in >production. In a market system, the evaluation of real capital is an approximation of the relative usefulness in the context of competition. Social capital is a stock of social relations that can be mobilized by an actor to realize transactions. If we adopt the broad view of production in networks proposed by EE, evidently both real and social capital are necessary for realizing a particular production process. Hence, the total capacity of an actor can only be assessed by taking all kinds of capital into consideration. For example, in empirical research, this is important for understanding >entrepreneurship.

Capital results from the increasing complexity of the>time structure of production, that is, capital is the direct reflection of the increase of >order in an economic system. This is true for all kinds of capital. Technology implies an increasing complexity of capital in terms of the temporal coordination of >elementary processes of production. The same can be said for the increasing institutional complexity of economic systems applying more complex technologies.

An important question in the analysis of the viability of economic systems focuses on the distribution of capital in a population of actors which affects the production process and especially the potential for >entrepreneurship, as well as the overall stability, in particular at the economy/polity interface.

Basic References
Our view of capital mixes sociological uses with Austrian capital theory which emphasizes the time structure of production. I recommend:
Malte Faber and John L.R Proops, Evolution, Time, Production and the Environment, Berlin et al.: 1998.
Nan Lin, Social Capital. A Theory of Social Structure and Action, Cambridge et al.: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

On social capital, there is a World Bank Website from which you can start out to disvover a lot of related material:
On social capital

Semantic Field
capacity
action   capital   competition