Sociability and urban life

5. Social networks, sociability and poverty.

Past CEM studies and the international literature stress the importance of the patterns of relationships and ties between individuals, entities and organizations to explore the myriad social dynamics, including inequalities. Although a number of investigations have raised this hypothesis, there are no studies on this in Brazil and, more often than not, social networks have been used metaphorically.

This investigation will explore the effects of different configurations of social networks on the social conditions of the individuals that make up these networks. Social networks will be compared in three different contexts: labor spheres, solidarity and access to policies and services, focusing not just individuals, but also on the organizations inside the network. The framework for this research will show us how specific networks work in each individual context, and allow us to learn about more general network patterns and their effect on social inequalities.

Coordinator: Eduardo Cesar Marques

Research team: Miranda Zoppi, Maria Encarnación Moya Recio e Igor Pantoja