Symbolic Boundaries and Social Capital

Robert Wuthnow (Rough Country) observes that “symbolic boundaries having to do with religion do in fact include differences in patterns of social relationships. Homophily appears in social networks to some extend such that Catholics are more likely to include fellow Catholics among their networks of close friends than non-Catholics are, and similar patterns are evident among Jews.”

This doesn’t mean that social networks are closed in by the religious boundaries: “Social networks may be homophilous with respect to religious categories but are seldom completely so. Catholics are unlikely to associate only with fellow Catholics, Jews only with fellow Jews, or conservative Protestants only with other conservative Protestants. Other things being equal, heterophilous relationships are likely to be more common when there are more opportunities for such relationships to happen. A diverse religious environment, therefore, should be viewed not only as a market in which religious competition occurs but as a space in which religiously diverse social networks are possible.” Wuthnow admits that “familiarity may breed contempt or at least sharpens the competitive desire to outdo the other in ways that rational choice theory suggests.” But “it may result in tolerance or acceptance or even in mutual understanding such that the competitive spirit diminishes” (478).

In the midst of the restructuring of American religion that Wuthnow has described elsewhere, “the most readily imagined possibility is that increased opportunity for heterophilous relationships may lead to a weakening of traditional boundaries separating and perhaps being the cause of conflict among religious traditions” (479).