"I do his shopping for her because she was always good to my Mum when she was alive".

An everyday offer of help, or is it something more complex than that?

A fascinating recent study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation explored just what lies behind the routine offers of kindness and support that keep our communities together.

Focusing on three Glasgow neighbourhoods: Bearsden, Hillhead and Maryhill, researchers wanted to see what lessons could be learned by shining a light on the invisible networks of support in different parts of the city.

The report's lead author Simon Anderson, associate at ScotCen social research institute, compared it to spraying water droplets on a spider's web, at the same time revealing its strength and fragility.

And, yes, it turns out there is more to a lot of this than meets the eye, which those working in the public and voluntary sectors in particular can learn from.

There are unwritten rules, for example, about support and how to ask for it or offer it so that the recipient isn't offended, and the supporter doesn't feel put upon. Interviews revealed strong ideas about how quickly someone should offer help, or reciprocate help they've received. Take that opening statement. It shows that not only can that sense of mutual support be played out over years or even decades, it can also be transferred to another person.

Different rules may apply in different areas - researchers found residents' ideas about support differed depending on whether they were in "reserved and respectable" Bearsden or "close knit and occasionally scary" Maryhill.

Stories people tell about themselves are important too. Glasgow talks of itself as the friendly city, with people who are warm and open. This matters, the study argues. It may be true partly because it is self-fulfilling, giving people a license to interact with each other in more supportive ways than they otherwise might do.

What does this all mean? According to Mr Anderson, the research means we have to rely less on assumptions about the sort of informal supports which people make use of from family, friends and neighbours.

It tells us more about the role of grassroots charities, organisations and businesses and how these and other assets such as libraries and community centres can act as 'junction boxes'.

"We wanted to improve our understanding of what happens in communities when they are under strain, because family finances, for example, are taking a battering," he explains.

Life events and stages can add moral complexity as well as new opportunities for support, such as bereavement or parenthood. Rules about who is deserving or undeserving and in what order can help predict what kind of help people can expect.

There is also the growing importance of online support - which the study found was significant not just in leafy Bearsden or the academic and professional west end, but in Maryhill too, with one sheltered housing tenant, for example, offering online disability support to his peers.

There aren't obvious policy lessons from all this, but like the role of informal carers, such support may have a huge monetary value in terms of diverting people from a need for more formal services.

Mr Anderson explains: "Small acts of kindness, 'wee favours' and relationships of everyday help and support can play a critical role in people's lives and yet are often barely visible to or accounted for by social policy."

There are lots of policy areas that could benefit from considering how such networks work and are sustained, he says. "It is vital that these webs of low level support are recognised, supported and maintained, particularly in context of austerity when people may need them most."