关键词: 社会资本, 海外关系网络, 地方经济发展, 广东新会

Abstract: Since the formal use by Prof. Pierre Bourdieu, the concept of social capital has been discussed and expanded in international academic field.In this paper, the authors definite social capital as social network and take it as the channel of resources distribution. The study paid attention to the impact of capital flow through the social network on local economy and its change with time. The social network chosen in the study is overseas relationship and the case studied is Xinhui, the famous overseas Chinese hometown in Guangdong province, with 713,000 overseas fellows that is 82% of the total population. Based on the analysis of statistical data, questionnaires and interviews, the authors found there are three ways of capital flow into local economy through social network, emigrant remittance,donation and direct investment. Emigrant remittance is the source of civil capital accumulation. Donation improved the local infrastructure. Direct investment contributes to the local economic growth directly. The importance of the three ways is different with time, but all played the key roles in the taking off of local economy. The authors also found that the impact of social network has a trend of weakening down. The amount of emigrant remittance and donation increased in the 1980s and then decreased in the 1990s. At the same time, direct investment has over past the former two ways.Considering the background of China's economic reform from planned economy to market economy since the early 1980s, social network played a compensation role between weakened planning and immature market. With the improvement of market institution, social network is withdrawing from the resources distribution. For local sustainable development, market building and environment improvement are more important in the future.

Key words: social capital, oversea’s relationship network, local economic development, Xinhui of Guangdong Province