ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors consider the neglected contexts by asking how network structures and ties drawn from those structures facilitate and constrain access to social capital in two extreme environments: a hurricane and an underclass population. Social capital has become a key concept in modern sociology. Studies of the ways in which social networks and their constituent ties provide social capital have generally neglected an important context, extreme environments. Network studies of social support have focused on the association between the structure of routine interpersonal environments, or core networks, and the receipt of informal support, neglecting to ask how these environments allocate resources in nonroutine situations. The authors explore whether the receipt of social capital from social-network ties in job finding is less prevalent among residents of underclass, as opposed to more affluent areas. They also explore the association between the nature of job-finding ties and the characteristics of contacts/resources, among residents of each type of area.
