Att bygga broar : Unga vuxnas användning av sociala kontakter i anskaffande av arbete

Sammanfattning: The purpose of the following essay is to study and explain how young adults use their social networks when it comes to finding a job. This study was conducted using nine semi-structured interviews with young adults with some form of employment. We used Granovetter’s theory about strong and weak ties, Bourdieu’s capital theory, Lin’s social reources theory and Putnam’s reasoning about generalized reciprocity. The result shows that social capital is a decisive factor in how young individuals use their social contacts. The volume of social capital is determined by economic resources, social background and the size of the social network. Less resourceful groups have a tendency to take advantage of the strong ties, i.e. family and relatives, often when looking for their first job. The weak ties, i.e. acquaintances, are used later in life when the individual has greater resources and networks. Individuals from the privileged groups may not always be able to work on their parents’ company as a first job, because they might require certain qualifications to do so. However, these job positions become possible for the young individuals from resourceful groups when they accomplish a relevant education. That's when they get the chance to use the resources that are embedded in their strong ties.