Family Demography, Social Theory and Investment in Social Capital
Author(s)
Astone, Nan Marie; Kim, Young J.; Nathanson, Constance A.; Schoen, Robert
Abstract
The subject of this essay is “social capital,” a concept that originated in sociology and is being widely incorporated into much current social science. The social capital concept is an extension of social exchange theory. This theoretical perspective is in common use by family demographers. It shares with neoclassical economics and materialist anthropology the premise that demographic phenomena are the outgrowth of human behavior that is purposive, future-oriented, and reflective, although externally constrained.
