La homofilia como forma de estructuración de las relaciones sociales en Cataluña

Abstract

How do we establish the relationships with the people who surround us? Who are those who are part of our network and how have they come to be? What characteristics do we share with them? These simple questions contain a basic sociological problem: the way we build our relationship is not random. Social interaction is the channel through which countless phenomena are transmitted, such as favors, reputation, or job offers. Therefore, the study of the social structuring of relations is crucial in the understanding of how these phenomena occur. This PhD dissertation explores one of the most consistent and robust patterns in the social structuring of interpersonal relationships: homophily. This is defined as "the principle that contact between similar people occurs at a higher rate than among different people" (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, and Cook, 2001, p.416). Despite homophily is a universal trend and although the concept enjoys a certain degree of consensus in its definition, many questions still remain unanswered. On the one hand, its definition describes only a result, a state of the relationships. It does not take part for any of the explanations of the phenomenon, which generate a lot more controversy. Moreover, the debate on the origins of homophily has focused on the opposition between choice and induction, without it being possible to close in favor of one or the other. Its study has been addressed from such a diversity of social characteristics and analytical approaches that the consistency of the results is not always evident nor interpretable. Finally, it is necessary to expand the understanding of the relationship between homophily and the social structuring of interpersonal relationships. These issues, some theoretical, some empirical, are addressed in this dissertation. The general objective of the dissertation consists of sharpening the understanding of the social structuring of personal relationships in the Catalan context through the analysis of homophily as a sociological phenomenon. The objective is addressed by means of statistical analysis of a sample of personal networks extracted in three Catalan cities (Barcelona, Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Balaguer). The main contributions of this thesis are: First, it describes the main features of Catalan personal networks n terms of their composition and structure. Such descriptions has existed in other contexts (such as the U.S. or France) from the decade of the 1980’s. Therefore, a gap in the understanding of Catalan personal networks is filled. Parallel to this description, a typology of personal network structures is proposed and used to provide a unitary understanding of the social position of the actors and the structure of their networks. Secondly, it is found that the familial geographical origin, especially in interaction with the socio-economic status, shapes the main social barrier in inter-group relations. This barrier is observed both for the immigrant population, which falls into the predictable, and among the local population, which is a peculiarity of the Catalan context. Finally, it is observed that contacts of a different status tend to be less embedded in personal networks. Such differences are not large enough to speak of a systematic segregation of relationships. Nevertheless, the effect of homophily on the embeddedness of heterophile contacts is subject to the type of structure of their networks, according to the typology proposed in the first objective.

Date of Award	14 Nov 2013
Original language	Spanish
Awarding Institution	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
Supervisor	Carlos Lozares Colina (Director) & Joan Miquel Verd Pericas (Director)