This project aimed to examine literature related to social capital and adaptive capacity across three fields: NRM, Community Development and Health and Wellbeing. The project firstly compiled a database of relevant literature, then produced an annotated bibliography, for use in the broader Cotton CRC funded project titled: 'Securing the Socio-economic Wellbeing of Rural Communities.' The literature revealed that while there were commonalities across the fields, context mattered a great deal, and contributed significantly to which factors were of greatest importance in various scenarios and that these factors were to a high degree, interdependent. What this means for the broader project, is that a key component of any adaptive capacity framework developed, must consider the importance of interdependencies between critical attributes of capacity that are specific and local, and which may differ between rural communities.