Networks, culture and inequality

One cannot understand social inequality without understanding social networks, and to understand social networks, one must understand how culture serves as both a glue that unites members of cohesive status groups and as a lubricant that facilitates the construction of new ties and cross-cutting networks. This chapter begins by reviewing work on culture, networks and inequality in the Weberian and Simmelian traditions. The rest of the chapter focuses on the need for new theories drawing on both traditions to comprehend their relationships in contemporary large-scale and structurally complex societies, characterized by diffuse and flexible forms of solidarity and social mobility. Drawing on research on cultural capital, micro-sociology and sociolinguistics, the chapter argues for the importance of “thin-but-supple” culture - cultural elements that are moderately highly diffused, moderately easy to master and polysemic - in connecting people who share identities without sharing strong cohesive cultures, who juggle multiple identities and participate in intersecting social circles.