This paper focuses on investigating the purposive design of learning environments to counter the erosion of social capital in communities and schools in contemporary society. Can schools intentionally replenish stocks of social capital by creating normative systems conducive to the optimal academic and social development of students, and by designing social structures with closure and continuity to support these normative systems? The study examined the notion of "intentionally created social capital" in relation to six high schools, researched as part of the fieldwork phase of a national study of social capital in high schools. Using one of these schools (a rural high school where naturally occurring social capital is characteristic) as a contrast, the study described the normative systems and social structures in five urban and suburban high schools that have sought to build social capital purposively, intentionally, and by design. By delineating the interrelationship between normative systems and social structures in practice, the study attempted to portray social capital as it exists in schools, and to identify the mechanisms used in its creation. (Contains 33 references.) (TEJ)