Unequal Reach: Cyclical and Amplifying Ties Among Agricultural and Oilfield Workers in Texas

Kathleen Griesbach

doi:10.1177/07308884211034208

Abstract

What kinds of ties do agricultural and oil and gas workers form in the field, and how do they use them later on? Why do they use them differently? Scholarship highlights how weak ties can link people to valuable information, while strong ties can be critical for day-to-day survival. Yet many mechanisms affect how workers form and use social networks over time and space. Drawing on 60 interviews and observations with agricultural and oilfield workers in Texas, I examine how both groups form strong ties of fictive kinship when living together in the field far from home—pooling resources, sharing reproductive labor, and using the discourse of family to describe these relationships. Then I examine how they use these ties very differently later in practice. Oilfield workers often use their fictive kin ties to move up and around the industry across space, time, and companies: amplifying ties. In contrast, agricultural workers renew the same strong ties for survival from season to season, maintaining cyclical ties. The comparison highlights how industry mobility ladders, tempos, and geographies affect how workers can use their networks in practice. While both agricultural and oilfield workers become fictive kin in situations of intense proximity, structural differences give their networks unequal reach.

Highlights

What kinds of ties do agricultural and oil and gas workers form in the field, and how do they use them later on? Why do they use them differently? Scholarship highlights how weak ties can link people to valuable information, while strong ties can be critical for day-to-day survival
What kinds of ties do workers form in the field, and how do they use those ties later on? Drawing on 60 interviews and observations with oilfield and agricultural workers in Texas, I show how both groups forge strong ties of fictive kinship in the field to get through weeks and months away from home; they mobilize these ties differently following the work period
What kinds of ties do agricultural and oilfield workers form in the field? How do they use those ties down the road? And what are some of the mechanisms behind the differences? Both groups form strong ties of fictive kinship in the face of social isolation and, for agricultural workers, material hardship in the field

Summary

Introduction

What kinds of ties do agricultural and oil and gas workers form in the field, and how do they use them later on? Why do they use them differently? Scholarship highlights how weak ties can link people to valuable information, while strong ties can be critical for day-to-day survival. Drawing on 60 interviews and observations with oilfield and agricultural workers in Texas, I show how both groups forge strong ties of fictive kinship in the field to get through weeks and months away from home; they mobilize these ties differently following the work period. Farmworkers lean on fictive kin in the field, return home to blood family, and repeat the season They lean on these cyclical ties from season to season, using them as lateral links to seasonal jobs for survival, without upward pathways. Oilfield workers leverage strong bonds formed in the field as ladders up and across industry hierarchies as they disperse across space, time and companies These amplifying ties can link workers to dynamic opportunities and help buffer them in downturns

Methods

Conclusion