Abstract
We investigate what kind of social structure promotes community development in hot-spring resorts, using social survey data from 51 resorts. As a theoretical framework, we focus on the contrast between “bridging” and “bonding” social capital by R. D. Putnam. The important findings are as follows. (1) Bonding social capital is necessary when community development has launched. (2) Bridging social capital is necessary when community development has reached its goal. These two findings suggest that each stage of community development requires different type of social capital, and that bridging and bonding social capital are not dichotomous with each other but two together would promote community development interactively and emergently.
