Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Arthur Downing
Author-Workplace-Name: All Souls College, University of Oxford
Author-Email: arthur.downing@all-souls.ox.ac.uk
Title: Social Capital in Decline: Friendly Societies in Australia, 1850-1914
Abstract: Participation 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 half 
of the century. This paper investigates the social relations between friendly society members. 
Part one looks at the importance of lynchpin ‘social capitalists’ in the functioning 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 four applies network analysis to proposition books 
to assess ‘intra’ lodge relationships between members. As friendly societies grew in size they 
became more business like. In turn the emphasis shifted from sociability and conviviality to 
insurance provision. In the process social capital was squandered, but the welfare function of 
these organisations was temporarily safeguarded.
X-Classification-JEL: 
X-Keywords: 
Length: 46 pages
Creation-Date: 2012-10-03
Number: _105
File-URL: http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/materials/papers/12453/downing105.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_105