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strong process of suffusion between kin and non-kin and between per-
sonal and family ties, while in Lithuania the overlap is mainly driven by
the overall salience of kin in personal relationships. Portugal is thus an
interesting case in this regard: in the context of a gradual improvement in
welfare and living conditions over the last few decades and a strong shift
in normative orientations, which are today more open to new family
forms and individualization, path dependency associated with familialist
practices and culture is nevertheless strong and makes it more likely that
individuals will blur the boundaries between family and friends.
A third conclusion is that these cross-national differences influence
the patterns of pluralization of personal configurations and the pre-
dominant type of social capital in each country. Standard-nuclear con-
figurations are not country-specific, showing how family forms centred
on the partner and several children are widespread, even in a southern
country such as Portugal, casting doubt on the notion of strong cul-
tures of extended kinship solidarity in such parts of Europe.
Configurations centred on the family of origin (Parent and Sibling-
oriented) are also fairly evenly distributed across the three national con-
texts. Overall, individuals in Switzerland develop more Alone, Friendship,
Wo rk-oriented and Sibling- oriented configurations than their counter-
parts in Portugal. Individuals in Portugal have more Extended conjugal,
Parent, Beanpole, and Narrow- nuclear configurations than individuals
in Switzerland, and more Friendship, Parent, Mixed, and Extended con-
jugal networks than individuals in Lithuania. Individuals in Lithuania
develop more Narrow-nuclear, Alone, Beanpole, and Sibling-oriented
configurations than Portuguese people.
This patterning of personal configurations is highly significant for the
type of social capital. As mentioned above, bonding social capital is typi-
cally associated with configurations focusing on kin ties from the family
of origin and the family of procreation, while bridging social capital
emerges in configurations centred on non-kin, such as Friendship and
Wo rk-oriented personal networks, as well as those involving a variety of
kin and non-kin such as the Mixed, Extended conjugal, and Sibling- oriented
configurations. As a result, the predominant types of social capital vary
significantly across the three national contexts. Individuals living in
Switzerland are more likely to develop bridging social capital, especially if
K. Wall et al.