The Asking Rules of Reciprocity in Networks of Care for Children

This article enumerates those unspoken but observed conventions, the asking rules, by which people abide when they are engaged in relations of give and take. By studying networks that employed parents construct to help them care for and raise their school-age children, this article analyzes the dynamics of reciprocity. It explores a distinction in Gouldner's theory between status obligation and normative reciprocity. Based on the evidence, the article argues that kinship status and class location shape the ways that asking rules are interpreted and invoked.