MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="----=_NextPart_01CDB5AF.295011F0"
This document is a Single File Web Page, also known as a Web Archive file. If you are seeing this message, your browser or editor doesn't support Web Archive files. Please download a browser that supports Web Archive, such as Windows® Internet Explorer®.
------=_NextPart_01CDB5AF.295011F0
Content-Location: file:///C:/6D7A90D4/Abstract.htm
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
Social capital in decline: Friendly Societies in
Australia, 1850-1914
Arthur Downing
All Souls College, University of Oxford=
Abstract
P=
articipation
in ‘friendly societies’ (or other cooperative organisations) is
often used as proxy for measuring the stock of social capital. This is too
simplistic. Friendly societies underwent radical changes over the nineteenth
century and contemporaries regularly bemoaned that sociability, member
participation and conviviality had been in steady decline over the second h=
alf
of the century. This paper investigates the social relations between friend=
ly
society members.Part one loo=
ks at
the importance of lynchpin ‘social capitalists’ in the function=
ing
of lodges. Parts two and three examine how lodges generated social capital =
and
how they relied on social network ties between members to function. Part fo=
ur applies
network analysis to proposition books to assess ‘intra’ lodge
relationships between members. As friendly societies grew in size they beca=
me
more business like. In turn the emphasis shifte=
d from
sociability and conviviality to insurance provision. In the process social
capital was squandered, but the welfare function of these organisations was=
temporarily safeguarded.