Embedding the Stranger: Ethnic Categories and Cultural Differences in Social Networks

Abstract

Ethnic categories and cultural differences are rooted in the structure of social networks. The segregation of migrant groups in networks of personal relationships determines the extent to which cultural differences can be bridged and the salience of ethnic categories in multicultural societies. Drawing on diverse theoretical strands from symbolic interactionism, social anthropology and Norbert Elias's figurational sociology to the relational sociology of Harrison White, Charles Tilly and others, the article aims at a network theoretical account of inter-ethnic relations, resonating with empirical research on personal networks of migrants. Alfred Schütz's Stranger, Robert Park's Marginal Man and Norbert Elias and John Scotson's Established and Outsiders as the emblematic figures of the sociology of migration are reconstructed in this framework as a common theoretical ground.

Keywords:

• Migrant Networks
• Social Networks
• Stranger
• Marginal Man
• Outsiders

Acknowledgements

I thank Anna Amelina and Vince Marotta for helpful criticism and suggestions.

Notes

1. Park first published the relevant essays on the marginal man between 1928 and 1937, before Schütz's influential essay on the stranger. Unfortunately, Park was quite unconcerned with questions of gender discrimination (Deegan 2005). A proper account of the ‘marginal woman’ would have to deal with the double marginality by ethnic descent (or ‘race’) and by gender.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jan A. Fuhse

Jan A. Fuhse is an assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Bielefeld (Germany). He received his PhD from the University of Stuttgart with a study on the role of interethnic contacts for the acculturation and ethnic identification of Italian migrants in Germany. In 2007–2008, he completed a post-doc at Columbia University (funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation), working with Harrison White and Charles Tilly on issues in the theory of social networks. Recent publications include: The Meaning Structure of Social Networks, Sociological Theory (2009), Tackling Connections, Structure, and Meaning in Networks: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Sociological Network Research, Quality & Quantity (with Sophie Muetzel 2011)