What resources do parents exchange in the VCLL?

Abstract

When parent relationships form within the context of a youth baseball league, they can and often do facilitate the exchange of benefits to one or more parties, a phenomenon known as social capital. Based on 18 months of fieldwork, approximately 30 interviews, and innumerable casual conversations with parents and league officials, I explore the specific types of resources that were typically shared between parents of a youth baseball league in the American Southwest. I uncovered four specific types of benefits that parents offered and accepted as a result of the relationships they cultivated during baseball seasons: emotional support, information sharing regarding goods and services about town, job information sharing, and childcare.

Notes

1. Because of the high proportion of electricians, plumbers and contractors in the league, I used these professions as my examples; I estimate (justly, I believe, but without direct evidence) that their preferences would extend to other professional services, such as lawyers, doctors and accountants.