A New Approach to the Social Capital and Social Networks of Australian Families

In today's Australin society family is active and engaged and it is through this connected nature that it is able to provide a type of value to its members. This value is seen as social capital. The ability of the family to generate social cpaital through its networks makes the family an interactive social entity, underpinning its position as part of the structure of society with some social networks more able to supply benefits than others. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study on the value of social networks to seventeen families living in Sydney, Australia and what might account for the variance between benefits. It contends that: 1) network particiaption varies with limited interactions affecting how families are able to leverage their networks; 2) resource exchange is either facilitated or constrained by the locations and communities in which families are embedded; 3) network exchange is compromised because the family is generally thought of as a privae unit. In this view, self-reliance is seen as the sole providence of a family. This limits network exchange because it is seen as impacting on the independence of the family.