ABSTRACT
Contrary to traditional approaches that study “communities” in terms of social ties within the neighbourhood, this chapter does it in terms of personal networks—a range of social contacts such as kin, friends, coworkers, in addition to neighbours. Using 14 name generators posed as situations that call of support (e.g., with whom do you discuss important matters or from whom would you borrow money?), we collected information from 3,000 respondents connected to 17,413 network members and investigated the diversity of those ties, how they might predict the level of generalised trust, national pride, sense of national identity, and connections to a range of people with different occupations. This chapter provides the methodological innovation that lies at the heart of the publication.
