Personal Networks as Social Capital: a Research Strategy to Measure Contents and Forms of Social Support

The basic idea of social capital consists of the belief that individuals\u2019 lives can be qualitatively improved by social relationships, or rather by the social resources that these relationships manage to mobilize. So, personal networks can provide a kind of capital for individuals. This essay examines the characteristics of personal networks that mobilize social resources in a sample of 307 individuals, representative of the population of Verona (Italy). By using some structural indicators of social capital, the authors describe the contents and the forms of different kinds of social circles (family, work colleagues, members in third sector organizations, friends, neighbours). This study rejects a hypothesis according to which stronger ties are better vehicles for symbolic and expressive resources, and confirms a hypothesis on the similarity of the forms of different social circles that provide individuals with social support

Slow earthquakes and low frequency tremor along the Apennines, Italy

This paper reviews the main observations on slow earthquakes and low frequency tremor made along the Apennines, the main seismic active zone of Italy. These observations have been made using a geodetic interferometer system operating since 1994 in the underground tunnel of Gran Sasso, central Italy, and an underground seismic array (UNDERSEIS) operating since 2002 in the same environment. The observations made in recent years indicate that both phenomena are quite rare and apparently uncorrelated. Slow earthquakes, mainly recorded in 1997 and occasionally later, have probably been caused by the activity of a shallow fault system located near the interferometers. Until now only one tremor episode characterized by low frequency content and duration of several hours has been detected in January 2004, without any correlations with the occurrence of slow or regular earthquakes. The signal to noise ratio of this event is very low, but the results of our detailed analysis show that its frequency contents and wave field characteristics are compatible with a low frequency non volcanic tremor

Il capitale sociale comunitario allargato

Il capitolo ha per oggetto di studio il modo in cui il capitale sociale comunitario di coloro che risiedono nel comune di Bologna \ue8 influenzato dalle realt\ue0 scolastiche e dai servizi frequentati dai loro figli

Una grandezza rilevante per la salute: il capitale sociale e la sua distribuzione in Italia

Il saggio intende presentare le caratteristiche pi\uf9 rilevanti del legame tra il concetto di capitale sociale e quello di salute degli individui, attraverso una ricerca di carattere teorico ed una di carattere empirico. Si propone, innanzitutto, una rassegna di alcune delle principali definizioni di capitale sociale, dedicando particolare attenzione ai contributi dei sociologi che hanno inquadrato il concetto all\u2019interno della pi\uf9 generale trattazione di quello di capitale. Successivamente, si affronta lo studio della relazione tra capitale sociale e salute, prendendo le mosse da quella tra reticoli sociali e salute. Dopo aver affrontato il tema della rilevanza teorica della relazione tra capitale sociale e salute, si presentano alcune delle pi\uf9 interessanti evidenze empiriche emerse da indagini condotte in alcune nazioni su questo oggetto di ricerca. Infine, si presentano i risultati di un'indagine sulla distribuzione di varie forme di capitale sociale all\u2019interno di un campione di individui rappresentativo della popolazione italiana (n = 2.002). Dall\u2019indagine emerge che le forme di capitale sociale pi\uf9 diffuse sono quella familiare, di parentela e associativa, mentre \ue8 piuttosto scarsa la diffusione del capitale sociale comunitario allargato e di quello generalizzato. Il capitale sociale associativo \ue8 la forma di capitale sociale sufficientemente presente che si distribuisce in maniera pi\uf9 uniforme rispetto alle differenze geografiche, di genere, di et\ue0 e di status socioeconomico. Considerando i nessi significativi tra capitale sociale e salute degli individui, si conclude ponendo in rilievo la necessit\ue0 di individuare le strategie operative pi\uf9 efficaci, affinch\ue9 le istituzioni e la societ\ue0 civile sussidino le reti primarie nella produzione di capitale sociale

Aspetti metodologici dell'indagine Cisf

Caratteristiche metodologiche dell'indagine empirica presentata nel Rapporto Famiglia Cisf (Centro Internazionale Studi Famiglia) del 2014

Social capital and health

This paper provides a sociological overview of the concept of social capital and explores how it is related to the notion of health. The theoretical section of the study addresses the issue of an operational definition of social capital and conducts detailed analysis of the dimensions and forms of the concept that stand out in terms of importance in the field of health research. It also takes into consideration the most significant causal mechanisms identified between social capital and health outcomes. The empirical part of the paper features analysis of data on the connection between social capital and self-perceived health, collected during the first survey conducted in Italy by the Osservatorio sulle Strategie di Consumo delle Famiglie (Observatory on Consumption Strategies in the Family). The survey shows that community social capital, generally expressed in terms of family trust, may, depending on the subject\u2019s social milieu of origin, not play any role in determining the level of self-perceived health in Italy. Alternatively, it may play either of two roles, acting as a multiplier or a substitute with regard to positive causal processes determined by parameters of a socio-demographic nature