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This paper reflects on the dynamics of today's financial markets in the light of two concepts -- publics and multitudes -- which were developed by the sociologist Gabriel Tarde at the end of the 19th Century. Each of the concepts reveals a different way of structuring social links among individuals. We consider that Tarde's concepts let us: (1) stress the communicative dimension of today's financial markets, placing currents of opinion at the core of speculative activity in the creation and assignment of value to monetary flows and other financial instruments; (2) hypothesise that financial markets articulate the logic of 'publics' (or audiences). These markets are virtually, globally connected, spreading currents of opinion that link financial experts and ordinary folk. They also link the multitudes (giving rise to 'bubbles', key social-temporal moments, and e-valuations through community links among professional agents -- all features that can pave the way to a crisis). The paper's point of departure is a review of present theories on Market Sociology. It then delves into the contributions that the concepts of 'public' and 'multitude' make in shedding light on financial dynamics and hence on the Sociology of Finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper outlines the validation of a family social capital (FSC) scale designed using the paradigm of relational sociology, and its application to explore the relations between FSC and other forms of social capital (SC). An exploratory factor analysis employing a principal component analysis method yielded three components, which accounted for the "support", "unity" and "ambivalence" dimensions of FSC. A structural equation model was constructed to explore the relation between FSC and generalised SC and civic SC. The findings indicated that a satisfactory validation of the FSC scale was achieved, and that ambivalence is an intrinsic element of FSC, as studies on intergenerational family solidarity have demonstrated. Moreover, the support and unity dimensions of FSC were negatively related to ambivalence, and positively (and only partially) related to generalised SC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]