Jurnal Ners Vol. 16, No. 1, April 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.20473/jn.v16i1.26676 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License EDITORIAL Social Capital in Community Nursing Profession: Rural Vs. Urban Communities Najla A Barnawi Assistant Professor, College of Nursing-Riyadh, KSAU-HS *Corresponding Author: Najla A Barnawi Assistant Professor, College of Nursing-Riyadh, KSAU-HS Email: barnawin@ksau-hs.edu.sa Social capital is a complex, socially constructed phenomenon and essential in community nursing, basically considering the rurality variations versus urbanity discourse. Applying sociological theory in rurality and urbanity discourse provides a deeper insight into the microscopic and macroscopic factors that concern social capital. Sometimes social capital is used as a core concept of micro-sociological theory to illustrate the social network where the human interactions are the major components. Therefore, networking in social capital aims to enhance trust and civism. In such a view, the nurse - community interpersonal ties and skills are essential to sustain social capital. It distinguishes the civism characteristics between rural versus urban population. A network and trust relationship, for instance, maintains the social capital of rural communities more than urban ones because of the vital kinship status, which constructs the civism of urban communities. This indicates that interpersonal relationships, which construct rural communities' networks, create a powerful societal supportive system. However, the out-migration of younger communities negatively impacts the interpersonal and kinship status, threatening rural social capital sustainability. Accordingly, it is logical to assume that social capital is more substantial in rural communities, though it is only sustained within the older generation. Indeed, aging and a higher morbidity rate leads the older population to be more isolated from younger, especially the middle -age generations. In contrast, network and interpersonal relationships in urban communities seem to be more casual than in rural communities. Based on that view, urbanization changes the pattern of networking and interpersonal relationships. This leads the younger population to seek alternatives to sustain interpersonal relationships, such as social media networking. However, these alternatives may not support the real meaning of civism and trust relationships. Therefore, and from a microscopic view, some controversies impact social capital sustainability in urban communities. Alternatively, social capital is a significant concept of a macro-sociological theory wherein that lens, societal and cultural construct, and collective human actions within a society are major social capital components. Several scholars emphasize the importance of social ties and shared norms to societal wellbeing and economic efficiency. Such a concept illustrates the social inequality and hierarchical social structures among rural and urban communities. Therefore, it is logical to classify social capital sustainability at a mesoscopic level into economic sustainability and ethnic/cultural sustainability. These factors are overlapped with each other, though all of them are influenced by geographical and non-geographical factors. The low and unstable economic status in rural communities negatively impacts the sustainability of social capital finical status. The industrialization of agriculture increases the low -rate wages jobs among the rural population and evidence asserts that manufactured and industrialized agriculture shifts social capital financial status from rural areas to urban and suburban areas. Indeed, the degree of unstained social capital varies between rural communities based on geographical location as well. For example, residents in rural areas, especially those with low income, are more isolated from taking the benefits of the minimal types of social services. Furthermore, considering the state exchange of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it is vital to address the potential disparities among rural communities in https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ mailto:barnawin@ksau-hs.edu.sa N. A. BARNAWI | pISSN: 1858-3598  eISSN: 2502-5791 states that follow this legislation versus those which do not. This leads to inequalities in accessing and utilizing the most needed social services, such as healthcare. There are various assumptions about the role of ethnic diversity in social capital. Some argue that it harms social capital at the community level, where ethnically diverse neighborhoods in urban communities decrease the social capital acculturation in urban and suburban communities more than rural communities. In contrast, some evidence highlights the association between ethnic diversity and trust, explaining an insignificant one percent of neighborhood-level fluctuation. The differential effect of diversity on neighborhood norms is less apparent once other factors, such as neighborhood poverty, are considered. However, there has also been found to be a slightly negative impact of diversity on social norms. Therefore, it is logical to consider ethnic diversity as a factor that has other contextual variables.