Networks of exclusion: job segmentation and social networks in the knowledge economy

This paper aims to highlight the need to understand the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion in the workplace which are often embedded in micro‐level work practices. It explores how social networks and the resources contained within them function differentially among workers to reinforce existing patterns of preferential access to the most desirable positions in the labour market.

Using in‐depth interviews of electrical engineers in a case study firm in the IT industry in Cambridge, England, the paper outlines the strong gendered and ethnic patterns of segmentation within the engineering occupation.

The paper finds significant inequalities in access to, and awareness of, the resources contained within some social networks in the workplace.

The study critiques the extension of social capital theory into the workplace due to its conceptual and methodological focus on positive outcomes.