BONDING AND BRIDGING CAPITAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO LOCAL COMMUNITY SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: A CASE OF RURAL TELECENTRES IN MALAYSIA

This paper examines the contributions of bonding and bridging capital (social capital) to local community socio-economic transformation in Malaysia’s telecentres. The adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) in rural regions may further enhance the effectiveness of telecentres to the local communities. Social and economic transformation has been identified as important outcome (perceived benefits). The objective of this paper is to evaluate the perceived effects of telecentre program on bonding and bridging capital. This paper assesses the perceptions of stakeholders (endusers and program managers) regarding the impact of the telecentre program on human capital of rural communities in Malaysia. The key findings show that telecentres are strongly associated with enhanced bonding and bridging capital although the causation effects may run both ways. Theoretically, this paper has shown that the telecentre improved the individual community bonding and bridging capital with the use of ICT applications and services. The research gap is whether the people perceive that there is an improvement in human and social capital as a result of the telecentres. Thus, these contribute to perceived effectiveness of the telecentre program and improve in digital knowledge and skills in rural Malaysia. With the improvement on telecentre program in Malaysia, this will lead to improvement on ICT for rural development. Therefore, this paper contributes primarily to the field of social capital, economic development and rural development with reference to local rural communities in Malaysia.