Those relationships can have intrinsic value for the individual members, creating a sense of belonging or being connected to others. But it can also have value fo r the larger society for three reasons: first, because one can draw on it as a resource for accomplishing some objective , such as partnering with other parents to improve the local schoo... See more

If you look at the the work of anthropologists like Marcel Mauss [Ed: who wrote ‘The Gift’ on gift cultures]or, Pierre Bourdieu, [Ed: who coined the idea of cultural capital] they emphasise the importance of non-monetary capital, the way in which, what we call social capital only functions if it didn’t feel transactional, if it didn’t feel like eco... See more