Network Capital in a Multi-level World: Getting Support in Personal Communities

Multi-level analysis provides a new approach to studying the sources of network capital by integrating analyses of individuals, interpersonal ties and the personal networks in which they are embedded. Using this approach aids theory and substantive analysis. Toronto data show that while tie characteristics are key predictors of supportive behavior, networks facilitate the supportive behavior of ties and individuals. For example, parents and children are more supportive in networks with high percentages of parents and children. Individual agency, dyadic duets, and network properties all make network capital available for social support. Acknowledgments We are grateful to earlier collaborators in East York personal community research for the foundation laid for this study, to the Rockefeller Foundation for providing Wellman with a month’s stay to complete this work at the magnificent Bellagio (Italy) Center for Study and Conferences, and to the University of Toronto’s Centre for Urban and Community Studies for its thirty years of being an eminently supportive research base. The contributions of Milena Gulia, Catherine Kaukinen, Stephanie Potter and Scot Wortley have been especially important for our work here, as have been the comments of Dean Behrens, Bonnie Erickson, Vicente Espinoza, Nan Lin, Uwe Matzat, Pamela Popielarz, Ray Reagans, Fleur Thomese, Charles Tilly, Beverly Wellman, and the members of the “Socnet” electronic mail discussion list. Earlier versions of this paper were presented to the Duke University Social Networks and Social Capital Conference (1998), the American Sociological Association (1999, 2000) and the International Sunbelt Social Network Conference (1999, 2000). Our research has been supported by grants to Barry Wellman from the Bell Canada University Laboratories and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This chapter is dedicated to Natalie Sherban and Joan Harvey, founding stalwarts of East York’s Neighbourhood Information Centre, who have demonstrated or thirty years that an organization can provide social capital and foster supportive networks. 1Network capital is a form of “social capital”. Social capital is a sprawling term, ranging from an individualistic framework that emphasizes the advantages that individuals can gain through their personal networks to a collective perspective that emphasizes the advantages of volunteerism to a community (Coleman 1988; Paxton 1999; Putnam 2000; Lin 2001). For further discussions of social support, see Erickson, Radkewycz and Nosanchuk 1988; Gottlieb and Selby 1990; Kadushin 1981; Lin, Dean and Ensel 1986; Wellman 1999. Two other means of obtaining resources, less prevalent in industrialized countries, are self-provisioning (Pahl 1984) and coercive appropriation (such as robbery, theft, and extortion (Dickens 1839; Pileggi 1985; Turnbull 1972). 2We ignore here personal characteristics, such as intelligence, health and attractiveness. 1 Network Capital in a Multi-Level World