Kinship Networks

Kinship networks are defined broadly as extended family, including biological relationships, genealogy, marriage, and other self-ascribed associations, beyond the family nucleus of parents and dependent children. Kinship is not conceptualized as a fixed meaning of natural or genealogical relationship but as a socially and culturally constructed and maintained network of individuals in constant flux. The boundaries between kinship, community, and friendship networks are increasingly blurred, thus biology, sexuality, and descendancy are no longer the sole defining factors to understand kinship.

[Page 466]Historically, marriage and kinship was one of the most significant factors organizing and structuring people's economic, political, and social life. Regardless of its exact social function, marriage was not for the sole benefit of the husband and wife; in particular, the needs of women and children were often secondary considerations. Rather, marriage and the consequently emerging kinship ties and networks helped to raise capital, maintain privilege and family lines across generations, organize the division of labor, create political alliances, and define parent-children authority relationships.

Structural analysis of kinship networks maps the relation between individuals and examines social ties and the frequency of contacts, directness of interaction, network density, household composition, and generational exchanges, among other variables. Functional analysis of kinship networks focuses on the construction and maintenance of social ties; questions of reciprocity; and the kind and amount of support given and received by members of the network, including instrumental (carework, household help, and financial and material assistance) and expressive (socioemotional and psychological) support. Kinship networks as social support systems could help reduce stress, ease crises in child care, mitigate the isolation of women in nuclear families, and create a cushion from poverty. On the negative side, some research found that participation in kinship networks increased stress and hindered economic mobility for individuals of lower socioeconomic status.