Abstract
Drawing from a unique dataset based on 146 in-depth, semistructured interviews with a nonrandom sample of ethnoracially and class diverse workers at one large public sector employer, the authors link job contacts’ patterns of assistance to three distinct cultural logics of job-matching assistance—defensive individualism, particularism, and matchmaking—which differed along three dimensions: (a) the primary criteria upon which help was contingent, (b) the perceived risk faced, and (c) the screening practices contacts used. These findings contribute to a small but growing body of research highlighting the cultural logics that inform where, how much, and to whom job information and influence flows.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
