Social Capital in Wide Family Contexts: An Empirical Assessment Using Social Network Methods

Using a sociometric approach to family relationships, we test the hypothesis that the way individuals define their family context has a strong impact on the types and amount of social capital available to them. Binding social capital is defined in terms of network closure, i.e. a redundancy of ties within a group. From this perspective, social capital is to be found in groups with a high density of connections, network closure enhancing expectations, claims, obligations and trust among individuals because of the increase of normative control. Bridging social capital is an alternative way of defining family social capital as a function of brokerage opportunities: the weaker connections between subgroups of a network create holes in the social structure which provide some persons—brokers—with opportunities to mediate the flow of information between group members and hence control the projects that bring them together. Using a sample of college students from Switzerland, we found that family contexts based on blood relationships such as those with grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins, provide a ‘binding’ type of social capital, whereas family contexts based on friendship provide a ‘bridging’ type of social capital. Inclusion of stepparents is associated with neither type of social capital.     

Present and absent in troubling ways: families and social capital debates*

Social capital has become a key concept in Government policy‐making and academic circles. Particular forms of social capital theorising have become dominant and influential, invoking certain conceptions of the nature of family life. Inherently, ideas about ‘the family’ not only draw on gender divisions in fundamental ways, but also on particular forms of intergenerational relationships and power relations. This paper explores the place, and understandings, of family in social capital theorising from a feminist perspective, including the way that debates in the social capital field interlock with those in the family field. These encompass: posing both ‘the family’ and social capital as fundamental and strong bases for social cohesion, but also as easily eroded and in need of protection and encouragement; the relationship between ‘the private’ and ‘the social’; notions of bonding and bridging, and horizontal and vertical, forms of social capital as these relate to ideas about contemporary diversity in family forms and the nature of intimate relationships; and analytic approaches to understanding both the natures of social capital and family life in terms of an economic or moral rationality. It argues for greater reflexivity in the use of social capital as a concept, revealing rather than replicating troubling presences and absences around gender and generation as fundamental axes of family life.     

Meanings of lone motherhood within a broader family context

In this paper, the theoretical approach to the concept of lone motherhood is adopted from ‘new’ family sociology where families are understood to be dynamic processes constituted by webs of relationships. I analyse life stories written by lone mothers in order to examine the meanings that they give to their lone motherhood in relation to their larger family context. This approach reveals that, along with the concept ‘family’, the category ‘lone motherhood’ can be questioned. The life stories show that as with all families, the representations of ‘the lone mother family’ vary. Lone motherhood emerges less as a distinct family form and more as an experience coloured by the lone mother's position in a web of family relationships, as well as her place in her broader personal, social and historical context.     

Little naked pangs of the self: the real performance of the self and the function of trust in Goffman's action theory

The aim of this article is to discuss some of the leading features of Erving Goffman's action theory as an alternative to the ‘orthodox’ paradigms of sociology, viewed as a structuralist and functionalist science that defines social constructs by their shared rules and values, and as a drifting of action, in the sense of intention, toward an individualistic version. The author examines Goffman's shift of the focus of attention from the boundaries of a social sense of action to the social dialectic of ‘defining a situation’ (W. Thomas) as conducted by the social actors in a renewal of Simmel's ‘empowering covenants’ (wechselwirkung) in the multiple casual social connections that make up the ‘social buzz’ in a society. The author moreover discusses Goffman's action as a kind of playacting regulating cognitive and expressive face-to-face ‘traffic’ between the social actors. This relational dynamic creates an interactive play based on encounters – in which one's opening to another is fraught with risks of deception – regulated by trust as a central resource for social interactions. Trust, in its interpersonal and systemic variants, constitutes a universal social datum and an elementary precondition for social exchanges and the cooperation between individuals. Trust, thus, functions as comparer between reciprocal expectations and a regulator of freedom tending to the stability of the social system.     

Promoting a sense of ‘secure base’ for children in foster care – Exploring the potential contribution of foster fathers

The role and impact of male foster carers in the lives of foster children is under-explored.This article reviews relevant research evidence (based on searches of Web of Science and PubMed and other sources) in relation to the particular contribution men as foster carers can make to a sense of ‘secure base’ for children in their family's care. It also includes attention to how men as foster carers may play a special role in helping to cultivate valuable social capital for the young person in their care.     

On shifting ground: First-time parents’ ideal world of paid work and family time

We examined first-time fathers’ and mothers’ perspectives about their ideal world of support in the context of dominant social ideology, ethno-cultural ideals, and the pragmatics of their everyday family, workplace, and socioeconomic circumstances during their first 18 months as parents. Twelve Canadian-born and six Chinese immigrant couples participated in individual in-depth interviews. We conducted a three-part analysis: fathers’ perspectives, mothers’ perspectives, and couples’ perspectives. Fathers focused on fulfilling dual fathering ideals of ‘time with family’ and ‘providing for family’; mothers emphasized fulfilling a mothering ideal of ‘caring for children'. Examining couples’ perspectives revealed a more nuanced understanding of their shared focus on ‘caring for family'. Parents in this study found the current social ideal of the ‘new’ father, who is both financial provider and nurturing co-parent, appealing, yet difficult to achieve. Couples wanted informal (i.e. family and social network) support, along with formal (i.e. workplace and childcare) support to enable them to provide family care and financial stability for their family. Findings contribute to understanding family and paid work experiences and decision-making among couples as new parents. We offer insights into the complexity of intersections among social ideals, personal expectations, family care, and paid work for fathers and mothers.     

Michael,part two: crisis and resolution in the transference

This is the second of two linked papers seeking to trace certain processes in a social worker/family relationship. ‘Michael, part one: a boy of twelve in conflict with the school authorities’, recounted two discussions of a case presented to a practice seminar led by the author. This paper describes a third seminar presentation and discussion of ‘Michael’. Michael's central problem of an insecure, unstable and ambivalent relation to his father, to which he reacted with difficult behaviour, was repeated when the social worker was inadvertently embroiled in the family's interactive strategy. In the ensuring crisis the boy was excluded from school. The social worker contained the crisis and paved the way for a deeper understanding of the central problem when she acknowledged that something had gone wrong in the relationship with herself. The view that limited unwitting collution with the central problem and subsequent acknowledgement of the error is potentially facilitating, in the context of otherwise steady consistency, accords well with Mattinson and Sinclair's (1979) research. Conceptually, the author draws also on oedipal and transference theory. The ‘third position’ aspect of oedipal theory is applied variously to the function of the father, the social worker and the seminar.     

Conceptualising social capital in relation to the well-being of children and young people: a critical review

This exploratory article forms the background for an empirical study for the Health Education Authority on children, young people, health, well-being and social capital. In terms of morbidity, children tend not to exhibit clear health problems, but obviously engage in activities that have important implications for their health and well-being (West & Sweeting, 1996), and these activities may be influenced by, as well as impact upon, children's social capital. Social capital is an elusive concept and has been defined in various ways, and refers to sociability, social networks and social support, trust, reciprocity, and community and civic engagement. The paper contrasts three interpretations of the concept, by Coleman (1988, 1990), Putnam (1993, 1995) and Bourdieu (1986). It concludes that the concept is currently poorly specified as it relates to children, and that the use of the term is inherently problematic, and needs to be carefully critiqued and empirically grounded before it can usefully be applied in social policy formulations. One possible way forward might be to conceptualise social capital not so much as a measurable ‘thing’, rather as a set of processes and practices that are integral to the acquisition of other forms of ‘capital’ such as human capital and cultural capital (ie qualifications, skills, group memberships, etc).     

Trust in complementary medicine: the case of cranial osteopathy

Trust has been seen as operating within situations in which an individual's ability to assess risk or probability is absent and yet they still choose to believe in something. The development of new sets of knowledge in modern societies raises interesting questions about how the public come to trust the ‘experts’ who practice them and there is a paucity of work which addresses how trust ‘happens’ in these new relationships. This paper uses the accounts of patients who use cranial osteopathy to discuss the bases of trust in complementary medicine. It is argued that the practitioner and their therapy is not the basis of patient trust. For the initial attendance the patient relies upon the accounts and credibility of other people (network trust). After this it is the phenomenological work of the patient, who strives to find meaning in the treatments they experience, which is essential to the development of trust relationships. The paper demonstrated that patients mobilise ideas and understandings which they are familiar with to understand the unfamiliar and that it is this process of seeking meaning which is central to the creation of trust.     

Evaluation of Family Therapy: A Comparison of Therapists' and Clients' Views**

In this evaluation of therapy experience for 82 families by brief therapy at Bouverie Clinic to 1976–1977, therapists' and clients' rating of outcome were obtained. After termination of therapy both therapists and clients reported high improvement rates in the presenting problem(s) as well as in the quality of family relationships and in the family's ability to deal with further problems. High agreement was found between therapist’ and clients' ratings of outcomes. Therapists were more favorable than clients in their ratings of change in the presenting problem and in their ratings of change in the quality of family relationships, but not in assessing the change in family's further problem solving ability. At follow-up clients were predominantly satisfied with their therapy experience. In addition, therapists' ability to predict outcome accurately, after the second of therapy, was strongly supported by our finding.     

Attachment and Risk of Future Harm: A Case of Non‐Accidental Brain Injury

Decision making in cases of non‐accidental brain injury is complex. Courts often view ‘alternate care’ as a means of ensuring that children are protected from further physical abuse. It is important for treating and assessing clinicians to present the court with a broad systems perspective highlighting the multiple factors which combine to impact on the child's future safety, welfare and wellbeing. These include risk and protective factors in the family of origin, the family's openness to monitoring and treatment; the child's needs for long‐term attachment relationships, and the risks associated with alternate care. This article highlights the need to consider long‐term attachment needs as part of any risk‐of‐harm assessment for young children who have been maltreated. Attachment issues are considered in the case of Nellie, a 17‐month‐old toddler with a serious and unexplained non‐accidental brain injury.     

‘Birds of a feather stick together’? Negotiating community,family and intimate relationships between ‘established’ and ‘newcomer’ Caribbean migrants in Britain

This article explores the ‘invisible’ boundary separating and informing social relations among ‘established’ and ‘newcomer’ Caribbean migrant communities in Britain. To briefly note, ‘established’ migrants are characterised in the analysis as those Caribbean migrants who settled in Britain from the 1940s, their offspring and subsequent generations. In contrast, the ‘newcomer’ represents a new influx of Caribbean that arrived and settled in Britain from the late 1990s onwards, either with a legal or illegal resident status. The common assumption is that ‘established’ and ‘newcomer’ groups are bonded together through shared cultural and ethnic background. Therefore any differences that exist between the two groups tend to be ignored because it is assumed that the newcomers are automatically absorbed into existing Caribbean communities. However, this empirical study of Caribbean families suggests that inherent differences exist between these two groups. To discuss issues of intra-ethnic diversity the analysis is guided by a social capital approach. It also draws on the views and perspectives of Caribbean people to highlight the social hierarchies and cultural stereotypes that exist between ‘established’ and ‘newcomer’ migrants. Concentrating on the ‘invisible’ and intra-ethnic boundaries between the ‘established’ and ‘newcomer’ migrants, the discussion explores issues of change and continuity, and also problems and opportunities that emerge within Caribbean family networks and their intimate relationships.     

Bosanquet's social theory of the state

Bosanquet's political philosophy was a social theory of the function of the State as ‘hinderer of hindrances to the best life’, where individual development was supported by relationships within a community. This was worked out in the context of considerable knowledge of conditions among the London poor at the turn of the century, and reinforced by his wife's practical work and research. He sympathized with Durkheim's pioneering sociology, and was in contact with him through the Sociological Society. His ‘New Liberal’approach, seeing problems of poverty as to be met by informed charitable activity, was restricted by insufficient recognition of the structural aspects of social problems and conflicts. The bearing of his Idealist Metaphysics is critically considered, and it is claimed that, although a good deal of this may not be acceptable, it gave a background to a kind of social thinking which is of interest to those looking for a communitarian type of political philosophy.     

Resiliency in Divorced Families

Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional and exploratory study was to identify resiliency factors that are associated with family adaptation after divorce. Questionnaires (The Family Hardiness Index, The Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scales, The Relative and Friend Support Index, The Social Support Index, The Family Sense of Coherence Scale) and an open-ended question were used to collect data independently from parents and children belonging to 68 divorced families in Belgium. Results indicate that there is a significant positive correlation between the three components of family hardiness (commitment, challenge, and control—according to the parents) and the family's adaptation to its changed circumstances. There are also positive correlations for both parents and children between the positive redefining of stressful situations by the family, the social support of the family, and the family's adaptation after divorce. According to the children there are also significant positive relationships between the family's use of avoidance strategies, the parents' educational level, the number of years that the parent had been divorced, and the family's adaptation.     

In Families or as Individuals? Theoretical and Methodological Problems in the Incorporation of Women in Class Analysis

The issue of how to properly include women in class analysis has posed a significant problem for social scientists for the past 40 years. A lack of consensus on this issue has informed the debate regarding women's subjective class identification as well as that regarding their objective class location. The failure to resolve it highlights a deeper problem in the study of social class: an uncertainty regarding whether the proper unit of class analysis should be the family or the individual. This article discusses the theoretical and methodological problems in the study of women's class and suggests further development of the dynamic conception of class offered by an ‘individuals in families’ approach.     

Family Work and Acquired Brain Damage

Acquired Brain Damage (ABD) causes immense difficulties for individuals and families and is increasingly recognised as a serious community issue. This paper focuses on the burden placed on family members with a head injured relative. The authors propose that when working with families with a member with a neuropsychological condition, the family therapist may be required to embrace a more flexible role. Depending on the developmental needs of the family, the family therapist may at times: provide educational information about brain damage and its effects arrange family support groups or wider network meetings be the family's advocate in the context of complex legal and financial bureaucracies or undertake marital, sexual or family therapy when required. Whatever the role played, a ‘family sensitive practice’ approach by family therapists is advocated. It is also deemed useful to develop a theoretical assessment model which helps the therapist locate where individual family members are in their negotiation of the tasks of grieving, restructuring, identity reformation and achieving a sense of growth after head injury. Further implications for clinical practice are outlined.     

Use of Overseas Migrants' Remittances to the Extended Family for Business Investment: A Research Note1

Abstract The extended family's role in economic improvement has been extensively debated. From a modernization theory perspective, the extended family is viewed as an institutional obstacle to economic progress, while a social capital perspective suggests that it is an “engine” insofar as it permits individuals to activate networks and pool resources beyond their own. This paper examines, from these perspectives, extended family influences on the use of remittances from transnational migrants. The research asks whether family influences are positive or negative and are more or less important than other factors in determining business investments. The research draws on interviews with 170 family heads in a small community in Pakistan. The results show that relatively little remittance income from family members working in the Middle East was channeled into business investments, despite government incentives offered to migrant households. Most of the extended family measures used in the research are statistically unimportant in explaining level of business investment. There thus appears to be little support for either modernization theory or social capital arguments on the role of the extended family. Of the five operationalized extended family dimensions only one was related to business investment, and that positively. However, “family” considerations are not irrelevant. The best predictors of business investment were a preexisting level of business exposure/experience within the family and whether or not the family head was aware of business investment opportunities. The results raise questions about the need to reconceptualize family influences beyond the formal dimensions of extended family structure.     

Gender, home and family in cultural capital theory

The paper argues that Bourdieu's stress on early familiarization for the highest value of cultural capital is closely linked to his idea, strongly emphasized in Distinction, about the role of family and domestic life for individual development and social positions. The role of women, as mothers and homemakers, is crucial in this process. Yet, Bourdieu defines social origin as deriving from the father. The centrality to Bourdieu's thinking of a resilient traditional pattern of masculine domination and feminine submission constitutive of the Western gender habitus explains both his stress on ‘normalcy’ for the production of legitimate dispositions, and his resistance to incorporating into his thinking the implications of recent transformations in home family living, which have destabilized the gender order. It is thus important to consider contemporary feminist analyses of the family and home life and their significance for a renewed theory of cultural capital. The paper considers two sets of literature. Firstly, it addresses the manners in which home and family are conceptualized in Bourdieu's key texts where these issues were prominent in the development of his thinking on cultural capital. The second set of literature includes texts by feminist academics in the fields of family, gender and the body, which analyse the destabilizing of the gender order and everyday family living in contemporary society. Two questions are addressed on the basis of these reflections: (1) Is cultural capital an individual or a household resource? (2) How does cultural capital relate to personal interdependencies at the level of family and households?     

Inside the black box: Dimensions of gender,generation and scale in the Australian rural restructuring process

Using a case study of the South Australian farm crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the article seeks to sympathetically engage with Whatmore's [Whatmore, 1991a; Farming Women: Gender, Work and Family Enterprise, Macmillan, London; Whatmore, 1991b. Journal of Rural Studies, 7(1/2), 71–76] feminist reconstruction of simple commodity production (SCP). It explores the extent to which Whatmore's reformulation of the SCP concept offers a scale- and agency-sensitive framework through which contemporary processes of agrarian change, including changing gender roles in many facets of rural and farming life, can be seen. Using Whatmore's adaptation of Connell's (Connell, 1987, Gender and Power: Society, The Person and Sexual Politics, Allen and Unwin, Sydney) ‘gender order’ and ‘gender regime’ to examine the survival strategies of Kangaroo Island farm families from 1984 to 1993, the article reveals that while Island farm women have played fundamental and diverse roles in the defence of the family farm and the farm family through their on- and off-farm and household labour, farm men's roles have changed little. Nevertheless, the article does find that the established gender order is undergoing gradual and uneven change as a familial ideology - where the maintenance of family living standards is considered more important than the preservation of the family's ties with the land - assumes importance in some young families' adjustment responses. In summary, the article finds that Whatmore's ‘domestic political economy’ provides an important advance in understanding how farm families, and individual farm women and men, negotiate global, national, regional and local pressures for economic and social change.