1 Searching for the relational mechanisms behind poverty and inequality

The literature on poverty has increasingly highlighted the importance of sociability patterns and social networks for the understanding of life conditions. The different patterns of social connections were already central in Wilson’s classical formulations (1987) about the relational effects of the concentration of poverty and in Bourdieu ’ s (1986) version of social capital to allow the understanding of both the “large ” and the “small miseries ” (Bourdieu, 2007 [1993]). More recently, these elements have been considered central in more formal analysis departing from intentional understandings of social capital (Lin, 1999a and b; Burt, 2004), but also in studies that consider non-intentionality in tie formation and social interaction (Briggs, 2001 and 2003; Small, 2009). The research in which this article is embedded focuses on precisely this issue, contributing to a better understanding of the role of social networks and sociability in poverty conditions, considering different housing and segregation situations (Marques, 2010a; 2010b and at press)1. Following the relational sociology perspective, the networks are considered as the relation fabric constructed continuously by the individuals in their daily practices in several simultaneous settings. Although in constant change, these networks constitute mid-size structures that mediate the access individuals have to material and immaterial goods, services, through different types of social exchanges. These networks may be mobilized differently by the individuals in different situations. Their effects over life conditions, welfare and deprivation situations are, therefore, ambivalent, suggesting that research strategies that depart from normative understandings of the networks will not be able to fully grasp their effect. Considering this understanding of the networks, I have combined several methods including qualitative and quantitative techniques (Wilson, 2002 and Small, at 1 The research was conducted in two phases, the first in 2007 in São Paulo and the second i