The literature on social capital has expanded rapidly in recent years. There is a growing interest in `social capital? and as a consequence of this, several definitions of this concept have been proposed. Although the definitions exhibit some consistencies, the terminology used varies, and there are substatial differences in the way social capital is conceptualizad. The differences in the definitions and arguments make it necessary to reorganize previous literature. Nevertheless, this is not easy, because of the variety of definitions. This paper expects to analyse the importance of social capital showing a panoramic view