The role of social support networks in helping low income families through uncertain times
In times of labour market insecurity and retrenchment of state support, low income families rely on friends and relatives as a safety net. This article explores the enhanced role of this ‘third source of welfare’ in light of these developments. It draws on qualitative longitudinal research to demonstrate how families’ situations fluctuate over two years and the importance of social support networks in hard times and periods of crisis. The research illustrates how social support is not necessarily a stable structure that families facing insecurity can fall back on, but rather a variable resource, and fluid over time as those who provide such support experience changing capabilities and needs. A policy challenge is to help reinforce and not undermine the conditions that enable valuable social support to be offered and sustained, while ensuring sufficient reliable state support to avoid families having no choice but to depend on this potentially fragile resource as a safety net.
History
School
- Social Sciences and Humanities
Department
- Social and Policy Studies
Research Unit
- Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP)
Published in
Social Policy and SocietyVolume
20Issue
1Pages
17 - 32Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)Version
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Rights holder
© Cambridge University PressPublisher statement
This article has been published in a revised form in Social Policy and Society https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746420000184. This version is published under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND. No commercial re-distribution or re-use allowed. Derivative works cannot be distributed. © Cambridge University Press.Acceptance date
2020-01-09Publication date
2020-04-14Copyright date
2021ISSN
1474-7464eISSN
1475-3073Publisher version
Language
- en