Family and Social Capital, 2003

Contemporary societies are rediscovering the value of “social capital”, intended as a patrimony and as a cultural resource  which sustains relations based on trust, cooperation, and reciprocity between persons. Even if the concept  of social capital is still in a phase of definition, it haunts at something essential to avoid the dehumanisation of social life.  What only a few have high-lightened is the fact that  in the national and international debate there exists a deep ambivalence towards the family, which seldom and arduously appears as a subject capable of generating social capital.
The family is seen with many reserves and suspects as a resource of  trust based  relations.

The contributions start from a distinction, between primary social capital formed by the family and  secondary social capital formed by associative networks and relations  in the civic sphere. The distinction is theoretically and empirically widely argued.

Various dimensions are explored, demonstrating that the family social capital  results to be crucial and unavoidable for the well being of persons and the community. The Report presents the first original empirical survey, representative of Italian population, on “ family and social capital”.

It is observed that the families  which are less fragmented and more supportive are an effective social capital for society, while the other family forms do not contribute to the creation of social capital, but tend to consume it.

Taken in consideration  that the development of society stands on social capital, and that  the civil and democratic quality of social life  wastes away with the declining of social capital, it becomes crucial to understand  why and how the Italian family is essential for the regeneration of the social fabric and how the family can be  supported and promoted in that direction.

Do we still need the family to produce social capital?
Pierpaolo Donati

The family as primary social capital
Pierpaolo Donati

Familiar social capital and sociality: a survey of the Italian population
Riccardo Prandini

How and when families generate pro-social behaviour in children?
Eugenia Scabini, Elena Marta

Family, school and social capital
Luisa Ribolzi

How and when the family “associationism” generates social capital?
Experiences of subsidarity  in social policies in Lombardy
Giovanna Rossi

Family and social capital in health
Carla Collicelli

The role of the family in generating social capital: an approach of political economics
Simona Berretta, Luigi Curini

Religion, family and social capital
Pierangelo Squeri

For a non capitalistic interpretation of the family as social capital
Pierpaolo Donati