CIVIC ORGANIZING WITH DISABILITY AND SOCIAL CAPITAL

The presented study deals with the issue of civic organizing of persons with disability (including their supporters, family members or volunteers) considered to be one of the primary indicators for measuring social capital. The authoress defines social relevance of the chosen topic in the introductory part. After that, selected characteristics of social capital as a sociological category are presented in order to apply them for analysing and interpretation of findings regarding the development of civic associations' membership within this area as well as the factors influencing this development. Her findings are supplemented by the research results of other authors that were focused on eliciting views of the disabled on citizens associations' efficiency in decision-making about public matters regarding the issue of the disability at the self-government level. She focuses on the bridging and binding effects of social capital generated in activities of civic associations of persons with disability, with ambiguous effect of the scope of civic associations, with the efficiency of the self-governing politics in this field, with possible causes of high fragmentation of the civic sector as well as with new challenges resulting from the information and communication technology development. In conclusion, the authoress emphasises that this study is one of the first attempts to use the interpretative potential of social capital for analysing this social-political field.