Which social capital? : young people's narratives as oppositional voices

Young people's understandings of social capital have been seldom researched. The indicators typically used to study social capital among adults may not generalise to many groups of young people. Understanding the informal or non-mainstream sites of young people's social capital is particularly important given that many researchers have argued that the formal social environment in which young people are situated is often challenging and even hostile to them. This paper considers marginalised young people's stories about social capital. It finds that young people's narratives about what builds their resilience and meets their needs are often not the dominant narratives. It also finds that many social arrangements established to support marginalised young people re-assert these dominant narratives and undermine the social capital of young people.