Social capital resources and network embeddedness: An egonet approach

Abstract

Social capital is accessed through social networks. This paper proposes a method for studying the links between social capital and personal networks at the individual level. We describe a social capital resource (SCR) name generator method that utilizes the substantive domains of social capital resources as the basis of a multiple question name generator strategy for a social network analysis, egonet methodology. We demonstrate how this new method generates social capital profiles and measures of network size and multistrandedness that allow comparisons of cases or from cases to population means. We report some initial findings of differences in the variability of social capital profiles and personal network measures between cohorts of younger and older respondents.