Social asset mapping emerged in academic and policy related discussions to combat the inefficiencies of the 'deficit' model that has dominated descriptions of urban communities for decades (Kretzmann and McKnight 1993). Proponents of the 'deficit' model postulate that poor people have elements of cultural pathology that prevent them from building on resources and rising from poverty. Under the deficit model, communities are viewed as clients that need assistance. An asset based approach starts with understanding a community's gifts and capacities. Through ethnographic analysis, researchers make explicit the complex social networks that people have developed in communities and use to organize community gatherings, build local institutions and confront, address and react to issues and concerns in their communities.

What are Social Assets?

1. The visible indicators of peoples' capacity to organize, for example, organizations and institutions are often located in places of worship, and other civic centers.
2. The ways in which people organize including networks based on family, friends, associates, etc.
3. The attitudes and values that underlie strategies and guide action.

All three types of assets are important and interrelated, but simply identifying assets is not enough. It is important to understand how they work, and which ones work for what purpose. That is why we focus heavily on the relationships between the different types of assets. External support or intervention can then be more effective, directed toward building on or reinforcing existing assets and strategies for sustainable and environmentally compatible development.

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