The role of social capital on household livelihood strategies: Review from theory to emperical research

Social capital is often identified as one of the most vital factors affecting households’ livelihood. However, literature on households’ livelihood has not cleared the role of social capital in livelihood, especially in livelihood strategies. This paper aims to review the relationship between social capital and household livelihood strategies. Based on previous papers in international journals and Vietnam journals, the author collected systematized and analyzed the role of social capital on livelihood strategies via the systematic review and other qualitative methods. Results show that there has been strong evidences about the relationship between social capital and livelihood strategies in theories and previous studies. Social capital has a direct effect along with indirect effects through other types of capital on livelihood. Besides that, methods of measuring social capital are diverse and depend on available data. Therefore, some aspects of that relationship revealed several research gaps, especially in empirical studies in Vietnam. The author suggested some dimensions in the role of social capital in research and applying livelihood policies in practice.