Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.8 Social Capital and Networks
The work of Richard Coleman (1988; 1990) locates social capital at the centre of family. Coleman uses the presence of parents as an important instrument that enables children develop certain competencies, norms, values, and abilities. He argues that character development and success motivation need to be developed from home. Of the three types of networks identified in the literature (Putnam 1998), namely bonding, bridging, and linking, bonding was more appropriate for Coleman as it fostered trust and reciprocity within closed social networks. While bonding is more convenient for people to get ahead, Stone (2001) suggests that bridging offers a wider spectrum that unfolds in diverse contexts. Unlike the former, the latter can negotiate resources and opportunities for actors beyond the context with which they are familiar. A handful of our research participants have confirmed the social advantage of bridging social capital and its ability to assist black African student to obtain multicultural relationships that enrich their prospects for securing the ideal job.
It is equally important to go beyond the quantity of time spent on a child to the quality of interaction (Amato, 1998). Therefore, different youth from different social backgrounds will not experience direct interaction with their parents the same. For those that are disadvantaged, bonding shall have no relevance in relation to career development beyond building their values and norms. In this manner, uneducated parents cannot contribute to their children’s homework and solve academic problems, including making the right career choices.
This approach is relevant within the African context. Supporting this argument, Sihlongonyane (2000) avers that Western families are not fond of embracing the non- biological parenting as they embrace atomic and individualistic values which are underpinned by capitalistic ideals. On the contrary, Sihlongonyane’s6 anecdote contends that African societies are underpinned by trusteeship, communalism, and generosity.
Although the western families would perceive supporting the extended family as an extra
6 “The Invisible Hand of the Family in the Underdevelopment of Africa Societies: An African Perspective” is undated article in a Peer Reviewed on-line Publication of The Global Development Research Center (GDRC), an independent nonprofit think tank.
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burden, he argues, it is within the latter’s norms that uncles and erstwhile relatives take care of a child’s education when a parent dies or during times of unemployment.
However, without the ability to measure the economic value of this social capital and the impact of urbanisation and industrialisation within African families, such broad claims of generosity remain unclear and vague.
It is suggested (Logue, 1993; Healy & Cote, 2001) that the largest proportion of people is likely to find their jobs through networking or personal contacts. This is true in this period of heightened unemployment which Deborah Brown dubbed ‘labyrinth of opportunity’ to imply that although there may seems to be no job available, those people that have good social networks are still able to secure employment opportunities. What constitute good social capital will certainly differ by geographic location and the history of race relations. In South Africa, most supervisors in science related departments, especially within predominantly HWU are likely to be white. Secondly, the chance of keeping relationship with their old peers in the STEM career is much stronger. This research has found that it is much easier for a white graduate student to move from university as a junior lecture to join the mainstream industry and a later stage, return to university with an in-depth experience to take senior lectureship position than it would be for their black counterpart. Several experiences of white doctoral graduates have shared a very strong motivation that pursuing lucrative and highly specialized science fields is not always about monetary gains. Instead of looking at the subject purely from white privilege vantage, it was highly critical for the researcher to understand the nature of dedication and commitment that has been a driving force of some young white academics.
Utilising Meyer and Shadle’s (1994) findings that what counts in this volatile time is not networking intensity but network quality, one can certainly assume that the nature of networking within South African professional bodies tends to be tendentious.
The effort placed by all post-graduates in joining such institutions does not always yield the same results. To land a good job, it is not only the quality of contacts one knows, but the quality of information likely to be translated into employment outcomes (Wanberg et al., 2000).
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It is in this context that Granovetter’s (1974:5) “strength in weak ties” hypothesis has currency. The author states that it is weak ties, i.e., friends of friends, which are likely to offer quality leads to job seekers more than the confidantes they have. Richard Coleman (1988) provides a more apparent reason why favours are likely to be transmitted through social network, including providing employment opportunity. Coleman argues that people reciprocate favours for the good demonstrated towards them. He posits that actor (B) is likely to become morally obligated in reciprocating favours provided to them by important others (A). However, such instalment is not due until opportunity arises wherein the latter (A) expects the benefits. Such interlocking relationships of benefits exchange, inadvertently, tend to exclude those who are not privilege to these relationships.
Current research on the impact of social capital to the family and individuals has not received in-depth attention in South Africa. This is truer within the education sector.
Many of the variations in educational outcomes, particularly based on race and class, lack a detailed account of the social capital aspect as to why middle-income youth tend to perform better than those from a low-income background. On transition from school to work, recent literature (Mlatsheni, 2007) has used the Cape Area Panel Study in acknowledging friends and relatives as important sources that help youth from Mitchell’s Plain and Khayelitsha to find jobs. In the same vein, Miriam Altman (2007), in analysing the Labour Force Survey from 2005, observes that 10% of youth respondents that claim to find their jobs through networks have racial underpinnings, as many of those respondents that acknowledge obtaining employment through networks are likely to be predominantly white.
This observation by Altman has been confirmed in this research, albeit using a handful sample of respondents, which may not necessarily provide a robust basis to draw conclusion. Several white students have admitted that their jobs were pre-arranged within either the family or supervisors. Consciously or consciously, the study found that their associates have shaped the level of relationship white students would require to secure employment. Although some of them may quickly haste to admit it that they have worked hard by themselves to secure the nature of job they required. This stands to reason that although both black and white graduate may genuinely work hard to go out searching for
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the job, the nature and structure of the job market is already set to advantage one and disadvantage the other. Whereas the odds of black graduates may be higher, the research further finds that black female graduates are the one who are most likely to feel the brunt especially within the engineering science profession which is still predominately a white male-controlled profession.
According to Kingdon and Knight (2000), people from remote areas are less likely to search for jobs than those closer to areas of work. Part of the reason for failure to search for employment is lack of family member or relatives in the metropolis which is an important facilitator for urban migration. Evidently, the type and quality of social capital accessible to low-income youth cannot foster the kind of linkages necessary to obtain the ideal job. In this vein, social capital’s application within the unemployed graduate context requires a political economy perspective that acknowledges the influence of contestations and subjectivity in the selection process. The nature of social capital that exists within low-income youth as against those in middle-income families need focused attention. Further, the role of families and friends in the formation of this social capital becomes important as a reliable asset young people can rely upon. However, its limitations must be underscored, especially where this interaction only evolves amongst the poor. At the same time, social capital formation cannot exclude educational background. Therefore, the scope of social capital research must go beyond addressing labour market entry-barriers. Further, it must highlight the interlocking relationship of the South African education system and the mismatch between human capital supply and demand.