ITALIAN FAMILIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL

Abstract

This paper explores how care provision takes place in families across countries and generations and what are its implications for the individuals and families involved. Drawing on the experiences of women of Italian origin who have migrated at different times, the paper shows that families are complex and fluid entities capable of adapting to different circumstances, such as geographical dispersal and rapid cultural changes. Rather than being in decline, as some social capital theorists seem to suggest, the paper demonstrates that families are resilient units that continue to perform numerous emotional and practical tasks for the individuals who form them. However, even it is argued that families can be seen as a locus of social capital of different forms, the paper also shows how maintaining family connections and fulfilling family obligations both constrains and empowers the individuals involved in them, especially women who tend to do a bigger share of this type of work.

Cet article examine la manière dont les familles se chargent de diverses responsabilités à travers les pays et les générations et étudie ce qui en résulte pour les individus et les familles. A partir des expériences de femmes italiennes qui ont émigré à des époques différentes, l'article démontre que la famille est une entité fluide et complexe capable de s'adapter à des circonstances différentes telles que la dispersion géographique et les changements culturels rapides. Certains théoriciens du capital social soutiennent que la famille est en déclin; cet article démontre qu'au contraire la famille est une entité sociale qui a du ressort et qu'elle continue à remplir de multiples tâches affectives et pratiques pour les individus qui les constituent. Cet article montre comment le maintien ion des liens et l'exécution des obligations familiales à la fois dynamise les individus concernés, surtout des femmes, qui ont tendance à accomplir une part plus importante de ce travail.

familles transnationales, capital social, tâches sociales, Italiens, rôle de la femme et generation

Keywords:

• transnational families, social capital, care provision, Italians, gender and generation

Notes

1. All names in this paper have been changed to preserve anonymity.

2. Social capital is generally defined as networks and reciprocities that can be activated for mutual goals (see Bourdieu, 1997; Coleman, 1990; Putnam, 2000).

3. For a critical review of the debate on immigration and the threat to social cohesion see Cheong, Edwards, Goulbourne, and Solomos (2005).

4. The interviews presented here are part of a larger sample including 50 male and female respondents of Italian origin settled in London and other smaller industrial towns of Southern England, as well as a number of respondents interviewed in Italy in Sicily (south) and in Trentino (north). The project entitled ‘Italian Families and Social Capital: Rituals and the Provision of Care in British-Italian Transnational Families’ (see Zontini, 2004b) is part of a larger ESRC funded project of Families & Social Capital based at London South Bank University.

5. In 1994 78% of parents over 45 who had two adult children both living within one kilometre from their household (Cioni, 1997).

6. ‘Comparaggio’ is established at the Church rituals of baptism, chrism and marriage. The relationships set up are at baptism between the father and the mother of the child and the man and woman who sponsor the child and between the sponsors and the child itself. At marriage, it is between the couple and the man and woman who are their witnesses and at chrism between the confirmed person and the friend they choose (Crisp, 1980, p. 98).

7. This interview was conducted in Italian, the translation is mine.

8. This interview was conducted in Italian, the translation is mine.

9. She defines it as: ‘the conception, maintenance, and ritual celebration of cross household kin ties, including visits, letters, telephone calls, presents, and cards to kin; the organisation of holiday gatherings; the creation and maintenance of quasi kin relations; decisions to neglect or intensify particular ties; the mental work of reflection about all these activities; and the creation and communication of altering images of family and kin vis-à-vis the images of others, both folk and mass media’ (Di Leonardo, 1992, p. 248).

10. This interview was conducted in Italian, the translation is mine.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elisabetta Zontini

Elisabetta Zontini is a Research Fellow in the Families & Social Capital ESRC Research Group, London South Bank University, and a Visiting Fellow at the International Gender Studies Centre, Oxford University. She has published on issues of gender and migration in Southern Europe, and her current work is on Italian families, rituals and care