Creating a Better World Together: How Different Groups Create, Maintain, and Utilize Their Networks

Abstract

We seek to understand how individuals from different groups conceive, build and gain benefit from their social networks in order to be able to generate better predictions and interventions that could help more disadvantaged individuals to nurture more productive networks and extract greater gains from such networks. The projects included in the symposium tackle the idea of different network use and returns distinguishing categories of individuals along the lines of race, individual traits, and gender. The projects give insights on how actors that belong to specific social and demographic categories can use and leverage their networks to achieve positive outcomes and overcome their disadvantageous positions. Structural barriers, cognitive impediments, or beliefs about the other make minority groups unable to benefit from the networks in the same ways as the majority group. Yet, our symposium seeks to understand and propose different ways to solve the issue and create a better world in which all individuals have an equal opportunity to thrive, regardless of their group membership. With this symposium, we argue that there is a need to consider the different paths and conditions that impact individuals’ intentions to create, maintain, and utilize their network ties more closely, in order to deepen our understanding of individuals networking patterns and be able to implement effective interventions. The Ethnic Foundations of Network Inequality: An Integrative Perspective Presenter: Stefano Tasselli; Erasmus U. Rotterdam Network Utilization Across Racial Groups Presenter: Teodora Tomova Shakur; Texas Christian U. Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone? Presenter: Alessandro Iorio; Bocconi U. Sex, Networks and Structural Holes: Recall and Usage Presenter: Helena Gonzalez; NEOMA Business School Gender differences along the idea journey Presenter: Francesca Nannetti; ESSEC Business School