| Yhteenveto: | The main goal of the present study was to investigate the role of informal social networks as providers of additional resources, which in the 1990s helped Estonian people to adjust to the changes, caused by the transition to the market economy. The study was part of a broader research project "Social Changes in the Baltic and Nordic Countries" which was conducted during the years 1994-1995 with a follow-up study in 1997. The data were collected via in-depth interviews and event-budget diaries. The sample consisted of 25 female and 25 male interviewees - the spouses of 25 families. 32 interviewees were ethnic Estonians, 18 belonged to the Russian speaking population group. The results of the study demonstrated that although the Soviet-type exchange networks for obtaining consumer goods and services, had lost their former meaning, the overall importance of informal social networks had not diminished. There were two factors found that significantly affected both the formation of network ties, as well as its ability to provide support - education and ethnicity. Personal networks of higher educated persons contain ties, which are able to provide different kind of support, whereas personal networks of people with low educational level are able to provide mainly support in practical matters. Thus, networks of lower educated people who are facing serious unemployment, etc. problems, often fail to provide the kind of support that is needed the most. As to ethnicity, there were clear differences found in the informal networks of the ethnic Estonians and the Russian-speakers, the latter having less contacts with their relatives and former fellow students, caused mainly by the geographic distance. The smaller proportion of contacts with kin and former fellow students in the informal social networks of non-Estonians is often replaced by a greater number of contacts with co-workers and former co-workers. The main conclusion of the study was, that at the beginning of the socioeconomic reforms in Estonia, different social groups were in an unequal starting position. In the situation of growing inequality additional resources provided by personal social networks were often the decisive factor of the coping success of a family or upward mobility of an individual. Accordingly, informal networks can be looked at as a individual-level social capital.
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