FAMILIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL IN SERBIA: SOME ISSUES IN RESEARCH AND POLICY

Based on several recent studies on families and households in Serbia, the paper examines the heuristic and methodological validity of the concept of social capital as applied in studying families in post-socialist transformation. After discussing conceptual issues and problems related to social capital and study of contemporary families, the findings from the studies related to social capital are summarized. It is argued that in a postsocialist society in transformation, such as Serbia, there are two sides to social capital, that consequences of strong "bonding" social capital are twofold, and that this has complex effects on different societal levels. In the concluding part, some methodological and policy issues that emerged from the evidence are pointed out.