This is a study of the structure of social and economic isolation in low-income populations. The project investigates three problems; the first two relate to social capital theory, whereas the third is methodological. First, the investigators will examine the micro-level behaviors and social structures relevant to spatial mismatch theory, which concerns the lack of low-skill employment opportunities in the immediate vicinity. Second, the investigators will test the hypothesis that inner-city residents paradoxically rely primarily on strong ties (e.g., close friends, relatives) for day-to-day assistance, but lack the weak ties (friends of friends, acquaintances) which would aid them in such instrumental action as job-finding. Third, the work will explore the efficacy of standard survey data collection methods in an inner-city neighborhood. This will be done through interviews with 600 residents of a poor neighborhood in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. %%% This project will improve our understanding of the social roots of the increasing problems of low-income neighborhoods, including high rates of poverty, unemployment, teenage pregnancy drug use, serious crime, and other indicators of social disorganization. It will examine the linkage of economic isolation (poverty and welfare dependence, loss of economic capital, lack of access to jobs) with social isolation (the isolation of low-income persons from mainstream individuals and institutions, and their inability to gain access to the information, influence, and other job-finding assistance that would allow them to escape poverty). The study will be a major step forward in testing theories about the roots of poverty.
