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Measuring the Social Capital of Laid-off Chinese Workers

Confusion over the concept of social capital is reflected in the variety of methodologies used to measure it. In studying the re-employment of laid-off Chinese workers, the author endeavours to measure their individual social capital in two ways. To measure their `possessed social capital' (i.e. the accessible resources in their social networks), their `spring festival contacts network' was studied for information about network size, density and embedded resources. The social capital actually used for re-employment was also measured. It was found that Chinese laid-off workers have less social capital than ordinary citizens. While searching for new jobs, they mainly depend on informal methods and substantial help from the network. Strong ties are more frequently used by these workers. However, workers with very low and high amount of possessed social capital tend to avoid using social capital in re-employment.

Key Words: measurement • possessed social capital • re-employment • used social capital

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