Social capital and collaborative governance in rural areas of Kazakhstan

Abstract

Kazakhstan has introduced direct elections and independent budgets at the rural level, increasing local autonomy in governance. Local community meetings provide an avenue for rural residents to engage directly with state officials. Such a conducive environment for collaboration between residents and state representatives requires social capital. This study applies Putnam’s social capital framework and examines how social capital influences collaborative governance in rural areas of Kazakhstan. To this end, the explanatory inquiry draws on data from five rural districts nationwide, including semi-structured interviews with experts, rural mayors, local community members and rural residents (N = 38) conducted in 2024–2025. Social capital is defined as social trust, networking and cooperation norms. The findings suggest that not all components of social capital (social trust, networking, cooperation norms) enhance collaborative governance equally. In particular, particularized trust enhances collaborative governance. By contrast, formal networking is mainly state-sponsored, whereas residents cooperate during crises such as flooding. Networking and cooperation norms, thus, are conditional: networking depends on top-down mobilization by state officials and cooperation norms rely on emergency or crisis circumstances.