ABSTRACT
What is more, the difference between strong and weak ties, in Granovetter’s (1974) work a difference in the intensity of a tie, is conceptually mixed with bonds and bridges, where bonds are expected to form between members of the same ethnic groups and bridges to cross boundaries of ethnicity and sometimes class (Putnam 2000). It is argued that the strength of weak ties matters most for finding jobs and that hence members of one ethnic group depend on ties to other groups of a higher social status to be successful in finding a job. This argument contains various untested assumptions. If the city in the making, as Simone (2010) has argued, is a people’s infrastructure where sociability takes many forms, it may well be that this modern, ‘Global North’ understanding of social ties is culturally hegemonic in the literature and conveys a Eurocentric way of thinking about sociability. This chapter explores the potential of this criticism by analysing the ties used by Sub-Saharan immigrants in Berlin to search and find jobs. This research did not include a full network analysis but did allow for the analyses
of ties as the interviewees themselves named and classified them (see Blokland and Van Eijk 2007 and Blokland and Noordhoff 2008 for similar approaches). We conducted 40 qualitative interviews with Sub-Saharan immigrants1 using a semi-structured questionnaire. The interviewees were found by visiting places like Afro-shops, cultural associations and two Pentecostal churches. Our research started from the assumption that Sub-Saharan immigrants as people of colour in Berlin are particularly affected by discrimination and exclusion from resources and places. This marginalization limits the capabilities of Sub-Saharan immigrants to get access to jobs, state support or apartments. As we were interested in people as infrastructure, we hence thought that Sub-Saharan immigrants would enable us to see some of the workings of making the city in a sharper way than with other groups: given their marginalization, there must exist alternative ways to get access to resources encapsulated in places and people. How, then, does one realize capabilities when not through mainstream channels? What role do social ties as alternative ways to access resources play?
