Social exchange and integration into visits-at-home networks: Effects of third-party intervention and residential segregation on boundary-crossing

Abstract

In this study, the concept of social integration will be rebuilt along arguments from social exchange theory and applied to close ties in social networks. Visiting children at home is part of daily routine–behaviour based on trust and expectations of reciprocity. Two different approaches to longitudinal modelling of ties in network data show that, once initiated, visits-at-home ties strongly tend towards reciprocity. While the intensification of these ties can be explained by E. Lawler’s affect theory of social exchange, their initiation will be regarded as a rational decision based on uncertainty and costs. Both increase when ethnic boundaries need to be crossed. Ethnic-residential segregation and spatial distance reduce the opportunity structure of inter-ethnic visits, and third-party intervention often inhibits ties in these networks.