Publication

This paper examines whether wealth and status negatively impact the formation of resource-rich ties between people at the bottom of the social ladder and people at the top. The author bases her research on interviews with doormen and residents of an upper-class neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The paper concludes that a culture of paternalism has enabled certain individuals to bridge the socioeconomic divide, although this culture is being eroded by external institutions that are formalizing doormen’s work.