Does perceived incongruence in opinion climate influence the degree of outspokenness? Evidence from two national events in China

This study extends the spiral silence theory and investigates the influence of perceived incongruence in opinion climate on individuals' intentions to express their true thoughts. Three intervening variables were examined to explain the process by which perceived incongruence in opinion climate leads to self-censorship: ambivalence, perceived opinion support, and internet political efficacy. Using data collected in telephone interviews with a random sample of 1020 Chinese residents in Shanghai and Guangzhou, we found that individual perceptions of the opinion climate varied considerably, and they were based on different media outlets. The Chinese audience is able to tell the difference between traditional media and the internet in terms of the features of their content. Moreover, among the Guangzhou residents, we found that the perceived incongruence in opinion climate was negatively related to the individual's willingness to express his or her true thoughts. Perceived opinion support was found the most robust intervening variable among the three proposed mediators.     

The Right to Aid: Perceptions and Practices of Justice in a Flood-Hazard Context in Jakarta,Indonesia

Regular floods impact negatively on the health and wellbeing of slum dwellers in Jakarta and it is understandable that the victims seek access to justice. Fieldwork in one of Jakarta's most flood-prone neighbourhoods, Bantaran Kali, reveals that riverbank settlers there access what they perceive to be justice by engaging in a number of different social networks that are neither formal nor informal—they feature in between civil society and the state. In this article I explore the network ties that are used by individual slum dwellers to access justice. I will show that in the context of extreme flood risk and related uncertainty, this form of social capital makes a significant difference to the community and to households, and with respect to individuals' resilience. By exploring this particular avenue of access to justice, I show that a sense of justice is achieved not through the formal agencies of government but by means of social networks in a space that fits uneasily in the dichotomy of state and non-state.     

Strong or weak ties? British and Indian expatriate scientists finding jobs in Boston

In this article I analyse the different social networks that British and Indian scientists use to obtain job information in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector around Boston, Massachusetts. I argue that individuals' social networks are critical in helping highly skilled migrants find jobs. The research finds that British and Indian scientists use both strong and weak ties to obtain jobs and there is no significant difference between senior and junior workers in terms of whether they relied on strong or weak ties. I argue, nonetheless, that the terms strong ties and weak ties are problematic because they are not clearly understood or mutually exclusive.     

‘We've Also Become Quite Good Friends’: Environmentalists,Social Networks and Social Comparison in British Columbia,Canada

Social networks influence social movement recruitment and individuals' ongoing participation in social movement organizations. In this article, we use a qualitative approach to explore the meaning of social networks for environmental movement participants in British Columbia, Canada. Our analysis draws on interviews with 33 core members of the movement. Environmental group participation creates multiplex social networks, encompassing work, leisure and friendship. Social movement networks are conduits for information exchange among environmental groups and they amplify the political power of individual participants. Ties to government workers and forest company management are more intense – based on frequency of contact – than ties to forestry labour or First Nations groups. However, forestry workers and First Nations are viewed more positively than government or forest company management. This illustrates how the intensity of social network ties can be distinguished from the subjective meanings attached to them by network participants.     

Transnational practices of Albanian families during the Greek crisis: unemployment,de-regularization and return

The outbreak of economic crisis in Greece in 2010 and the austerity measures adopted have dramatically altered the economic and social conditions throughout the country and consequently deeply impacted the migrant families. With Albanian regular migrants losing the legal status and lapsing back into irregularity due to the high unemployment rates, the reverse process of de-regularization and social disintegration has emerged. As a result, many migrants drew on family and social networks to pursue work opportunities either back home or elsewhere, while maintaining their formal ties/residence in Greece. This article explores the impact of the Greek crisis and de-regularization phenomenon on the transnational practices among Albanian families. Our aim is to go beyond the general theories on transnationalism and look at what exactly is the impact of the crisis on the families, as well as individuals' dilemmas of return and negotiations between transnational mobility and staying put, between different levels of belonging and their orientation to the present and future. The empirical analysis is based on in-depth interviews with 70 Albanians of first and second generation living in Greece.     

Social Networks and Employment: Outcomes (Part 2)

In this second article, we continue to survey research that addresses work and employment from a social network perspective. Building on a companion article in this volume, which explores in‐depth the main network mechanisms presented in the literature, this article reviews studies addressing how social networks may shape key employment outcomes for both individuals and organizations. Network access and activation may shape individuals' selection into employment opportunities in addition to a variety of post‐hire outcomes including employee performance, promotion, rewards, job satisfaction, and termination. Organizations too may be influenced by their network position and by the activation of certain ties, ultimately affecting key outcomes such as firm performance, innovation, and learning measures. We conclude by discussing promising areas for future research on how social networks interact with employment.     

Climate Hazards and Risk Status: Explaining Climate Risk Assessment,Behavior, and Policy Support

Based on a national survey conducted two years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, we investigate the ways in which major “risk conditions,” which may subject individuals to climate-related hazards, translate to varying responses to risk: including risk assessment, behavioral modification, and policy support. We present a model that an individual's risk status can be determined by their embeddedness in risk conditions, which include both exposure to risk sources and access to risk information. Our findings suggest that an individual's access to information on climate risks significantly influences their proactive responses to climate hazards, as in, those who have objective knowledge of climate risks and social ties with concerned others are more likely to be proactive toward climate risks. It is also observed that an individual's political views tend to predispose their assessment of climate risks, which further affect their behavioral and policy responses.     

Goal specific social capital and job satisfaction: Effects of different types of networks on instrumental and social aspects of work

This paper addresses the question “To what extent can job satisfaction be explained as the revenue of social capital?” By conceiving someone’s social network as social capital we specify conditions under which social ties do lead to job satisfaction. We inquire into the idea of goal specificity of social capital, which implies that a network with a given structure and content will have different impacts on various aspects of job satisfaction. If the content of the ties and the structure of the network at the job engender material well-being or produce social approval, satisfaction with the corresponding job aspects increases. Data were collected in 1993 using written questionnaires in two Dutch governmental agencies, one with 32 and the other with 44 employees. These workers’ networks were charted using nine name-generating questions.Social capital, it turns out, is not an all-purpose good but one that is goal specific, even within a single domain of life such as work. Three effects stand out: First, the structure of the network and the content of the ties do matter. Networks of strategic, work-related ties promote an employee’s satisfaction with instrumental aspects of the job, like income, security, and career opportunities. Second, closed networks of identity-based solidarity ties improve an employee’s satisfaction with social aspects of the job, like the general social climate at work and cooperation with management and colleagues. Third, a network with a bow–tie structure (i.e., where a focal actor is the link between two or more mutually exclusive cliques) generally has strong negative effects on satisfaction with the social side of the job; although a bow–tie type network of trusting ties does increase satisfaction with the social side. This implies that Krackhardt’s hypothesis on the unpleasant feelings produced by bow–tie type networks has to be specified for the content of the ties that constitute such a network. The most important conclusion of our analysis is that goal specificity of social capital has implications for both structure and content of social networks. Achievement of a particular goal, such as satisfaction at work, requires not only networks of a certain structure or ties with a particular content, but specifically structured networks of ties with a particular content.     

A gendered lens for building climate resilience: Narratives from women in informal work in Leh,Ladakh

In this paper, we critically examine the gendered impacts of climatechange related extreme events upon workers in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. Climate change impacts disproportionately affect the livelihoods of women engaged in informal work like weaving from their homes and street vending. Existing research suggests that women are more likely to be among the most vulnerable in such extreme events as well as are vital agents to develop climate resilience within their communities. We draw upon unique quantitative and qualitative data to critically examine the lived experiences of female informal workers from Leh, Ladakh (India). Drawing on the work of Duchek (2020),  we explore how women informal workers navigate their daily strategies of anticipating, coping, and adapting toward climate change. From this analysis, we offer novel empirical evidence about gendered climate resilience and suggest broad recommendations for building climate resilience within mountain communities.     

Attitudes,Perceptions and Concerns of Student Social Workers: First Two Years of a Longitudinal Study

A longitudinal study was initiated by the authors in September 2001 to monitor the changing attitudes, perceptions, concerns and experiences of 32 social work students during their two‐year MSW training at University College Dublin, subsequently following the students into their first three years of practice. This paper reports on the findings from the first two years of the study, exploring how much the attitudes of the respondents changed towards different areas of social work practice while they were full‐time students. Both quantitative and qualitative data have been collected by means of mixed method questionnaires, taken at four points over a two‐year period, and a focus group. Issues examined included the students' changing perceptions of stress, job satisfaction and levels of expertise in different areas of social work practice. The study also monitored their willingness to work in specific areas of social work after graduation. Statistical analysis revealed that students consistently rated social work in the areas of child protection and welfare as requiring high levels of expertise, but they associated the area with higher levels of perceived stress and lower levels of job satisfaction. These attitudes remain relatively stable throughout their two‐year professional training. However, the study revealed greater changes in the students' willingness to work in different areas. For example, specialist family services such as fostering and child/adolescent became more popular choices for future work settings. This change was noted to have occurred between the start and end of the course. Also noteworthy was that general medical, probation and welfare showed the most negative change.     

Social Networks,Migration, and Care in Tanzania

This paper explores the impacts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on children and families in northern Tanzania using the concept of social resilience.1 1. This paper is based on a presentation entitled, “Social Networks, Migration and Care in Tanzania: Supporting Women, Children and Young People's Resilience,” prepared for the 2nd African Conference on the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research, International Convention Centre, Cape Town, May 9–12, 2004, organized by the Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa (see: www.sahara.org.za). View all notes The study is based on the findings of child-focused research with street children and children and families from HIV/AIDS-affected households. The paper illustrates the coping strategies that children and young people, and parents and caregivers adopt at the household level. In particular, it examines how the burden of care affects different generations of women and highlights their resilience, together with the importance of social networks and the fluidity of movement between rural and urban areas. The research suggests that migrating to urban areas to seek a living in the informal sector represents a survival strategy adopted by some children and young people orphaned by AIDS when their families and communities are unable or unwilling to support them. The paper concludes by exploring parents’, caregivers’, children's, and young people's views on the forms of social support that would promote their resilience and thereby help to mitigate the impacts of the epidemic at the household level.     

Family comes first: Men's and women's personal networks in Tehran

This paper examines the characteristics of middle class Tehranis’ networks, based upon a survey of 318 individuals from the 159 households. The results show that women and men have similar-size networks. However, their networks differ substantially in gender composition, with each having almost two-thirds of network members of their own gender. Men's and women's networks contain a large proportion of kin overall. Most ties tend to be with immediate kin: children, parents and siblings. An immediate kin is usually the socially closest member of a network. Apart from voluntary factors, the importance of kinship ties in men's and women's networks may be the result of the macro-structural conditions under which patterns of social relationships take place.     

Ambivalence in Later‐Life Family Networks: Beyond Intergenerational Dyads

In later life, changing conditions related to health, partnership, and economic status may trigger not only support but also conflict and ambivalence, with the consequent renegotiation of family ties. The aim of this study is to investigate both conflict and emotional support in the family networks of older adults, taking the research beyond the level of intergenerational dyads. We used a subsample of 563 elders (aged 65 years and older) from the Swiss Vivre/Leben/Vivere survey. Multiple correspondence analysis and in‐depth case studies were used to identify the key social conditions that relate to the prevalence of conflicted and supportive dyads in family networks. Findings showed that the balance of conflict and emotional support in older adults' family networks varied according to the composition of their family network as well as their age, health, income, and gender.     

Queering Climate Change: Exploring the Influence of LGBTQ+ Identity on Climate Change Belief and Risk Perceptions*

Although researchers have broadly addressed how race, party identification, political ideology, and binary gender categories influence climate change opinions, little attention has been paid to the relationship between sexuality and gender variance (LGBTQ+ identity broadly) and climate change perceptions. Using a quota-based survey from 2022 that approximates the US population on key demographic characteristics and oversamples LGBTQ+ individuals, we assess the degree to which LGBTQ+ individuals' climate change beliefs and risk perceptions are comparable to cisgender, heterosexual (cishet) individuals, specifically examining climate change beliefs, the perceived threat climate change poses, and worry about climate change. We argue that LGBTQ+ individuals' views are likely to be distinct from their cisgender heterosexual (cishet) counterparts for three reasons: climate change is likely to exacerbate existing structural inequalities, create disaster responses that reinforce heteronormative and discriminatory patterns, and activate LGBTQ+ political culture. We find evidence that LGBTQ+ individuals express higher agreement with climate change beliefs, identify climate change as a greater threat, and worry more about climate change when compared to their cishet counterparts.     

Social media and political discussion: when online presence silences offline conversation

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the relationship between the use of social media, attitudinal strength, perceived opinion agreement with social ties, and willingness to discuss a political issue in different online and offline contexts. Unlike the anonymous environment of some Internet forums, social media are closely tied to the relationships and activities of everyday life. Social media increasingly make ties from offline contexts persistent online, and, because of the ambient nature of these technologies, awareness of the opinions, interests, and activities of social ties has become pervasive. As such, the use of social media is likely to affect everyday conversation about political issues in on- and offline contexts, including the home, workplace, social gatherings with friends, community meetings, and on social network sites (SNSs). Based on a national probability survey, we find that the use of SNSs (i.e., Facebook and Twitter) has a direct, negative relationship to deliberation in many offline settings. Some uses of these platforms are associated with having a lower, perceived opinion agreement with social ties. As part of a spiral of silence, this further reduces the willingness of social media users to join political conversations in some offline settings. Only those with the strongest attitudes on an issue are immune.     

Positions,Roles, and Dependencies in a Community Interorganization System*

This study focuses on community structure as a network of interorganizational linkages, with an eye toward (1) generating new conceptual schemes to study the community as a social network and (2) developing a methodology to measure new dimensions of community structure. An analysis of structurally equivalent roles is performed in two communities for three organizational resource networks: money, information, and moral support. Global dependencies on resource generator, consumer, and transmitter roles for the money network are analyzed using loglinear models. Local dependencies within the money network are also examined. Finally, the study examines the perceived influence of organizations in community affairs as a function of the organizations' global positions within the community network.     

Support,social networks and the family in Portugal: two decades of research

This article presents two major surveys, carried out in Portugal, on the inclusion of families and individuals in social networks of support and affinity. The first, dating from 1999, sought comprehensively to reconstruct families' social networks by mapping effective support relations. The second survey, fielded in 2009–10, followed a family configuration perspective which sought to reconstruct individuals' networks of close relationships, and the issue of informal support only arose as providing further insight into the characteristics of personal networks. Both surveys will be analysed from a comparative perspective which, while stressing their different but connected conceptual orientations, compares each one's methodological strategies and operationalization procedures. Finally, the main results of each survey are outlined, leading to a brief discussion of the ways in which the two surveys complement each other.     

Ask Not What Your Mentor Can Do for You…: The Role of Reciprocal Exchange in Maintaining Student–Teacher Mentorships

Mentoring relationships between adolescents and adults are an important source of social capital that facilitates young people's academic and social development. Studies show that close relationships with teachers especially benefit socioeconomically disadvantaged adolescents, yet little is known about teacher‐mentors’ perspectives on mentorship. This study draws on in‐depth interviews with teachers in low‐income high schools and ethnographic observations to examine the dynamics that sustain student–teacher mentoring relationships. I engage social exchange frameworks to show that reciprocal exchanges that generated intangible rewards for teachers, such as gratitude and purpose, helped maintain mentorships. I find that teachers’ motivations to invest in students were contingent on the strength of the relationship. Teachers withdrew assistance when they perceived that relationships became nonreciprocal. The context in which teachers interacted with mentees and the form of support they had given also influenced their evaluations of reciprocity. These findings contribute to a growing body of literature on relationships that challenge strict divisions between the function of strong and weak ties. Further, these findings contribute to social capital literature by showing that once accessed, social capital does not lie latent as network ties maintain the same willingness to help. In actuality, resourceful ties must be maintained.     

Chronic illness and social network bridging in later life

Chronic disease has profound impacts on the structural features of individuals’ interpersonal connections such as bridging — ties to people who are otherwise poorly connected to each other. Prior research has documented competing arguments regarding the benefits of network bridging, but less is known about how chronic illness influences bridging and its underlying mechanisms. Using data on 1555 older adults from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), I find that older adults diagnosed with chronic illness tend to have lower bridging potential in their networks, particularly between kin and non-kin members. They also report more frequent interactions with close ties but fewer neighbors, friends, and colleagues in their networks, which mediates the association between chronic illness and social network bridging. These findings illuminate both direct and indirect pathways through which chronic illness affects network bridging and highlight the context-specific implications for social networks in later life.