'Longe dos olhos, longe do coração': invisibilização e homofilia nas redes associativas.

Previous researches conducted on two neighborhood associations in Porto Alegre have shown that structural and relational distances between individuals are reproduced in the conformation of the associative networks. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the mechanisms that explain the association between structural and relational distances – i.e. the homophily – observed in the urban associations. Faced with the impossibility of covering adequately the various causal mechanisms of homophily, we chose to address a mechanism that appears to play a central role in contexts of profound inequality as in Brazil: the mechanism of invisibility. Therefore, the paper focuses on the relationships and the urban displacements of two individuals as a methodological resource to analyze the homophylic patterns observed in organizations in which they participate. The research findings enables support empirically the presence and importance of the mechanism of invisibility. On one hand, the invisibility is expressed in the propensity of individuals in subordinated positions are absent from the spaces and relationships that structure the daily lives of individuals surveyed. This absence decreases (and, ultimately, prevent) the possibility that meaningful and lasting relationships are established between unequals. On the other hand, even when that propensity is overcome and the respondents interact with individuals and organizations in inferior positions, it is observed that such interaction tends not to produce relevant links.