Can networks of interpersonal relationships help households deal with times of economic crisis? The role of family workers

Abstract

Family workers are persons who help, without monetary remuneration, another member of the family to run a business and therefore they fit fully in what Bourdieu (1986) called “the [households] actual or potential resources, linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships which help to reduce people social exclusion”, a significant nonmaterial dimension of poverty (Sen, 2000). A previous paper (Guagnano and Santini, 2015) highlighted the main characteristics of family workers in the European Union and their role played within households as a tool to alleviate poverty. The aim of this paper is to evaluate if and to what extent the role of family worker is affected by times of crisis in the European Union and more specifically across countries. The analysis is based on EU-SILC survey data. The paper shows that in the European Union, except only for a limited number of countries, the role of family workers within family businesses seems to have strengthened during the recent economic crisis (when?), in favour of a more active and less occasional contribution.