Network Segregation

Network segregation is the systematic separation of social clusters along lines of class, race, ethnicity, or ideology, producing a topology in which intra-group ties are dense and inter-group ties are sparse or absent. Unlike random network fragmentation, segregation is structured: the absence of connections is not accidental but a product of institutional barriers, spatial sorting, and homophily operating within unequal opportunity structures. The consequences extend beyond social isolation to information inequality — segregated groups receive different information, different opportunities, and different framings of the same events. Network segregation is not merely a symptom of inequality but a mechanism that reproduces it: when bridging capital is structurally unavailable, intergenerational mobility is constrained regardless of individual merit. Social capital theory that ignores segregation is a theory of privilege masquerading as a theory of networks.