Making Connections: Social Capital Formation Within Resource-Brokering Urban Neighborhood Organizations

• In Event: The Dynamics of Racial and Ethnic Inequalities in Schools and Neighborhoods

Abstract

This study seeks to determine the extent to which low-wage urban workers form interpersonal ties and institutional ties to training program faculty and staff within the employment training program context. While some trainees purposively develop social ties with each other to achieve their work-related goals, these ties may also develop as a by-product of group training in an institutional setting. In addition to determining the institutional mechanisms and processes that promote social capital, this study analyzes the strength of the social ties formed during training. Specifically, it examines how respondents personally understand and define friendship, uncovering the nuanced meanings of friendship from the direct perspectives of low-wage urban workers engaged in community-based employment training.

Author

• Frederic Gerard Hutchinson, University of Chicago