Abstract
The Czech Republic is characterized by a large number of separate municipalities with size up to thousand inhabitants. Municipalities with more than 3000 inhabitants in the Czech Republic create about 93 % of all municipalities and home to a total of 3.3 million inhabitants, i.e about one third of the population of the country.
This size category is in this research considered to be part of rural space. Some of these municipalities are growing, some are not.
This development is affected not only its geographic location, but also many other factors. Many authors seek how these communities can be diversified (different typologies of rural areas are created) and how the differences between rural communities can be reduced (addressing disparities).
In recent years, it appears that one of the major factors that cause differences between municipalities is social capital. The question remains, however, how to measure social capital at the level of individual municipalities.
This paper presents a methodology how to measure the social capital of municipalities that was developed within two years of research supported by the GAUK. Using the research design of case studies that closely monitor and evaluate hundred characteristics in 18 villages in three different regions of the Czech Republic, 10 indicators were found, from which an index of potential development potential of communities was developed.
Half of this index consists of indicators related to social capital (individual and collective). The paper presents these indicators, the way they were determined and the possibility of subsequent use of the partial index of social municipal capital.