Social Contexts, Social Networks, and Urban Neighborhoods: Environmental Constraints on Friendship Choice

Abstract

This article considers the influence of neighborhood social contexts on the content of social networks. Contextual explanations for individual behavior argue that (1) individual preferences and actions are influenced through social interaction, and (2) social interaction is structured by the social composition of the individual's environment. Thus, a preliminary step to constructing contextual theories of individual behavior is an examination of the way that the social context structures social encounters and friendship choice. The empirical correspondence between the content of neighborhood social contexts and the content of social networks is examined using a sample of white male Detroit residents. A mathematical model of associational choice is developed that incorporates the ability of individuals to enforce social preferences on their choice of friends while it maintains the role of the social context in structuring that choice.