Poor people's bridging ties: an exploration of poor people's networks in a poverty neighbourhood and a mixed neighbourhood in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Urban restructuring in various European countries is aimed at creating mixed neighbourhoods ¿ in terms of socio-economic status as well as ethnicity. This policy not only aims at establishing a more `balanced¿ population in poverty and ethnic concentration neighbourhoods, but also at stimulating social integration of, especially, deprived and ethnic groups. The idea seems to be that spatial mix will increase socializing between different social groups also, and that this will contribute to individual social capital of underprivileged groups. In this way, it is believed that this mixing policy will contribute to socio-economic integration of deprived groups. One way to approach this issue is to follow the social capital argument that relationships in which people can built durable exchanges of resources necessary for social integration and mobility ¿ bridging ties ¿ can be more easily formed by residents who live in mixed neighbourhoods than by people who reside in homogeneous areas. Previous studies have shown, in general, that residents of mixed neighbourhoods hardly built social networks of durable ties with each other. However, it is still unclear whether people in mixed neighbourhoods have relationships with people from different backgrounds more often compared to people who live in rather homogeneous neighbourhoods. This paper examines the composition of the social networks of people living in a mixed neighbourhoods, compared to the networks of those who live in a rather homogeneous low-class, ethnic minority neighbourhood, and thus gives some insight in the significance of neighbourhood composition for social networks of people.