Leading international agencies are energetically researching a new concept in development more efficient, more durable, more equitable and more participatory. It's the case of the InterAmerican Bank of Development. Taking off from Latin America and the Caribbean but in a spirit of a wider application to other areas of poverty in the world, this work analyzes the notions of social and cultural capital end their practical applications to the subject of development, without forgetting the impact of "globalized" cultural industries, which now rule the imaginations of the populations of destitute nations just like all the other inhabitants of this planet.