Passaparola, The Movement of Political Information and Organization in Two Immigrant Communities In Rome

The debate regarding the ideal network structure for pursuing opportunities continues. While a closed network fosters norms of reciprocity that enable members to work together to overcome shared challenges by building enforceable trust (Coleman, 1988), it also produces homogeneous information and predisposes a community to repetition and replication rather than innovation (Walker etal, 1997). In contrast, a network with structural holes allows members to gain access to new information and work with new partners in achieving their goals (Burt, 1992). It is commonly thought that these weak ties are infinitely more valuable for creating economic and social opportunities (Granovetter, 1973; Lancee, 2010; Putnam, 2000) than ties within a closed network. Nevertheless, access to new information and opportunities are not useful when the types of social relationships that foster cooperation through network closure are missing (Gargiuglio and Benassi, 2006). Given that most individuals belong to multiple networks characterized by both closure and structural holes, it is useful to understand networks as possessing both qualities. Using data collected through interviews of members of two important and growing immigrant communities in Rome (Filipinos and Bangladeshis), I adapt Kloosterman and Rath’s (2001) model of mixed-embeddedness, which understands immigrant entrepreneurship as dependent on opportunity structures available through networks within and without the immigrant community, to study the political entrepreneurship within structures of mixed embeddedness. Using this methodology, I describe how political information is disseminated and employed by immigrants to organize politically in their new host community