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composition of family configurations, gender, education, and birth
cohort impact the structure of social capital. Social capital is classically
defined as resources stemming from the possession of a durable network
of acquaintance or recognition (Bourdieu 1985 ). The concept focuses
on the benefits individuals accrue by virtue of their relationships (Portes
1998 ). Rather than referring to participation in groups or associations,
personal networks’ studies refer to relationships to specific persons.
Given this definition stressing relationships as personal resources, strong
personal networks are expected to have positive consequences, such as
promoting physical and psychological health or increasing individual
resilience against non-normative events of the life course (Furstenberg
and Hughes 1995 ; Furstenberg and Kaplan 2004 ; Widmer 2016 ).
However, much of the work done on social capital uses a definition of
strong networks based on network closure, that is, redundancy of ties
within a group characterised by a high density of relationships (Coleman
1988 ). In dense personal networks, most if not all individuals are inter-
connected. Such interconnection enhances expectations, claims, obliga-
tions, and trust because of the collective nature of normative control. If
the focal individual (or Ego) violates the group’s expectations, the other
individuals may jointly react. Dense networks also facilitate communi-
cation by multiplying the number of information channels and reduc-
ing the number of intermediaries between any two network members
(Widmer 2006 ). Finally, in dense networks, support is collective, as
individuals are likely to coordinate their efforts in helping one another.
From this perspective, social capital is found in personal networks in
which most if not all alters of a focal individual, or Ego, are intercon-
nected by significant relationships, which means a high density of con-
nections exists. This structure of social capital is thus defined as bonding
social capital.
A second understanding of social capital underlines the bridging
potential of relationships in personal networks, full of brokerage oppor-
tunities (Burt 1995 , 2002 ; Widmer 2016 ). The absence of relationships
among some alters creates ‘holes’ in the structure, which provide focal
individuals with opportunities to mediate the flow of information
between their alters and hence control their interactions (Burt 2002 ).
Strong networks, in that second understanding, are not dense but rather
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