EOI 26,2 144 Equal Opportunities International Vol. 26 No. 2, 2007 pp. 144-161 # Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0261-0159 DOI 10.1108/02610150710732212 Networks of exclusion: job segmentation and social networks in the knowledge economy Mia Gray Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK Tomoko Kurihara Social and Political Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK Leif Hommen Division of Innovation, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, and Jonathan Feldman Department of Economic History, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden Abstract Purpose – This paper aims to highlight the need to understand the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion in the workplace which are often embedded in micro-level work practices. It explores how social networks and the resources contained within them function differentially among workers to reinforce existing patterns of preferential access to the most desirable positions in the labour market. Design/methodology/approach – Using in-depth interviews of electrical engineers in a case study firm in the IT industry in Cambridge, England, the paper outlines the strong gendered and ethnic patterns of segmentation within the engineering occupation. Findings – The paper finds significant inequalities in access to, and awareness of, the resources contained within some social networks in the workplace. Originality/value – The study critiques the extension of social capital theory into the workplace due to its conceptual and methodological focus on positive outcomes. Keywords Social networks, Social capital, Labour market, Gender, Communication technologies Paper type Research paper Introduction This study highlights the need to understand the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion in the workplace which are often embedded in daily micro-level work practices: informal chats, friendly gestures, sporting ‘‘partners’’, and powerful figures who want to help the next generation of employees. However, these micro-level work practices help create bonds of reciprocity, obligation, and trust that provide access to information, shared working norms and practices, and narratives which function to frame the experiences of the workplace. These practices create and sustain social networks in the workplace, the benefits of which are unequally distributed and result in the reproduction of labour market inequality. This paper explores how social networks function differentially among workers to reinforce existing patterns of preferential access to the most desirable positions in the labour market. This occurs both through gendered and ethnic differences between occupations and between the jobs within an occupation. Labour market segmentation is the social division of workers into skilled, relatively secure, elite, core occupations and unskilled, insecure, non-elite occupations with little or no labour market mobility. Many scholars argue that this segmentation is strongly gendered and there is overwhelming and persistent evidence that female-dominated The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0261-0159.htm