Sociologie Românească, Vol. VIII, no. 2/2010, pp. 145-160.
Formal and informal social capital - interrelationship modalities and processes
Petru Iluț, Cristina Tîrhaș*
*University "Babeş-Bolyai", Cluj-Napoca
Abstract: Research in connection with social capital is very much connected with forms and specific indices (analyses are concerned or with the social capital understood as a form of participation and trust in institutions and organizations; or-on the contrary, analyses accentuate the role of non-institutional networks). In our research, we tried to investigate the conjunction between these two forms of social capital, by studying the dynamics of flux between them. The pilot research of the paper starts from the intuitive hypothesis that in our country - in the context of erosion of trust in public institutions, especially political institutions, doubled by the individualization, the informal social capital has turned inside, towards the enlarged family, respectively first grade relatives. In general terms, the hypothesis of turning inside can constitute both a vicious (the number of contacts diminishes and so does the network) and a virtuous (the intensity of relatives and trust are more accentuated) event. Preliminary research has confirmed both the hypothesis of vicious and virtuous turning. In the final part we employ an analytical view concerning the role of intergenerational exchanges in the enlarged family, especially from Transylvanian, and through some schematic figures we illustrate the findings. Finally, based on our quantitative and qualitative data, we formulated some conclusions and openings.
Keywords: formal social capital; informal social capital; structural social capital; contextual social capital; virtuous turning of social capital; urban-rural differences; intergenerational exchanges.
Cuvinte cheie: capital social formal; capital social informal; capital social circumstanţial; spirala virtuoasă a capitalului social; diferenţe rural-urban; schimburi intergeneraţionale.