The development of structure in random networks: an analysis of the effects of increasing network density on five measures of structure

The density of ingroup relations continues to be proposed as an indicator of structural cohesion. Network density is obviously a misleading indicator of structural cohesion when a group has subgroups; in such circumstances, the cohesion may be entirely internal to the subgroups. However, it is plausible that network density is a useful indicator of structural cohesion when it can be assumed that a group lacks subgroups. In order to analyze this possibility, I construct a set of random networks, increase the density of relations in these networks, and observe how the networks' structure develops in terms of five measures. The results show that low densities in large networks may be associated with more structural cohesion than higher densities in smaller networks; it is suggested that in field studies, attempts to control for network size will encounter problems of nonlinearity and heteroscedasticity. I conclude that network density is not a useful indicator of structure and that direct measurement of structure is to be preferred.     

Race and Interactions on Public Transportation: Social Cohesion and the Production of Common Norms and a Collective Black Identity

In this article, I examine interactions on public transportation in order to assess social cohesion among members of the same race. Contrary to the prevailing view of social cohesion in urban places, I find that individuals in poor, black areas demonstrate more social cohesion than individuals in more affluent, white areas. This cohesion is meaningful as it plays a role in the production of common notions of a particular black reality and collective black identity, and that it serves a normative function in defining appropriate behaviors. I use Goffman's idea of civil inattention as a heuristic for studying social cohesion.     

Religiöse Diversität und Sozialintegration im internationalen Vergleich

Following Robert D. Putnams (2007) thesis that ethnic diversity weakens social cohesion, this study addresses the social consequences of religious diversity. Instead of contrasting social-psychological mechanisms it takes a macro-sociological perspective that focuses on different structural forms of religious diversity and relates them to the trust relations within a population. The empirical results based on a cross-national comparison of 41 European and Non-European societies show that religious macro-structures are indeed related to social trust. But contrary to Putnam’s “hunkering down” thesis religious diversity does not lead to social anomia and isolation but has different effects on social trust toward religious in- and out-groups. Key is the result that different macro-structural forms of religious diversity have different consequences for social cohesion. The question, whether religious diversity poses a threat or opportunity for the social integration of society, therefore crucially depends on its concrete form.     

When friendship is stronger than prejudice. Role of intergroup friendships among adolescents in two distinct socio-cultural contexts of immigration

Despite the structural characteristics of international migration in most European countries, the persistence of prejudice and negative attitudes towards immigrants represents an unsolved problem that erodes social cohesion. European institutions continue to be concerned about the spread of xenophobia, especially among young generations. This article aims to shed light on the crucial role of intergroup friendships, considered a key factor in reducing the hostility toward immigrant groups. In particular, the aim is to verify the effects of intergroup friendships on prejudice, using data derived from an international survey carried out in France and Italy, two emblematic European countries as regarding the experience of international migration. 1,642 French and Italian adolescents, selected by a rationale choice sample, were involved: multivariate analysis confirmed the hypothesis that adolescents who hold intergroup friendships show lower levels of prejudice. The influence of the intergroup friendships on the decrease of intolerance is evident especially on socioeconomic and security issues while for the identity matters its effects are moderated by the country of residence of the participants. Considering these results, positive contacts among local and immigrant populations are recommended in order to reduce social fragmentation and foster social cohesion.     

Diversity and social cohesion

The issue of diversity, in its broadest sense, is discussed here in its relation to social cohesion, cross-cultural relations, ingroup–outgroup relations and educational interventions. The main thesis of the paper is that real social cohesion in an ingroup rests on the acknowledgment of and the dialog with the diversities of the members of the ingroup itself. And that diversity relating to the outgroup and to the various members of the outgroup is understood and accepted, given that diversity among the members of the ingroup is also understood and accepted. This way, cross-cultural relations within an ingroup and between the ingroup and outgroups are fostered, which partly contradicts some traditional assumptions in social psychology research, according to which social cohesion in the ingroup is accompanied by hostility toward the outgroup. A study we conducted in Italian schools on youths’ attitudes toward multiculturalism with the use of focus groups indicated that most participants have lost or have never experienced a feeling of general social cohesion. It also indicated that lack of social cohesion creates fear and that fear can provoke aggression. Some considerations are presented aiming to help teachers foster social cohesion and positive cross-cultural contact in their classes.     

Social Relations, Core Values, and the Polyphony of the American Experience

This essay examines social relations and cultural values in the United States, paying special attention to recent characterizations of Americans as increasingly isolated, disconnected, and dangerously individualistic. In this essay, I refute such claims. And building on earlier work ( Cerulo, 2002 ), I show that U.S. social relations and cultural values are more multifaceted than such "new individualism" arguments suggest. Indeed, as Robin M. Williams Jr. discovered 50 years ago, when studied in a systematic way, U.S. values and beliefs present us with a multiplex system—a system in which individualism plays only a supporting role. This is true, I suggest, because Americans'"value focus"—that is, the prioritization of one value over another—shifts in concert with certain social events and structural conditions. In this way, we can think of U.S. values as part of a "cultural toolkit," with actors selecting or foregrounding the values needed to support certain strategies of action.     

Profiting in a Warming World: Investigating the Link Between Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Capitalist Profitability in OECD States

Economic growth is a key contributor to climate change, but undergirding growth is capitalist profitability. In this article, I refine this long‐standing relationship between growth and emissions by estimating if the profit rate and the “exploitation rate” (surplus profits / wages and salaries) predict greenhouse gas emissions. I do so in a sample of advanced capitalist economies from 1995 to 2016 with profitability data on four industries (agriculture, manufacturing/construction, energy, and transportation) as well as greenhouse gas emissions data for both those industries and emissions at the national level. Methodologically, I use two‐way fixed effects models and panel‐corrected standard errors. My results show that the total profit and exploitation rates are positively associated with emissions. Exploitation in the transportation and manufacturing/construction sectors, moreover, is also positively associated with emissions. This article provides empirical support for those in environmental sociology claiming that capitalist profitability is a key driver of climate change and ecological change is inseparable from unequal social relations.     

Reconciling commodities and personal relations in industrial society

Conclusions I began this article with Colin Campbell's lament about the productionist bias in sociology and the related point that most sociologists concerned with consumption have ignored private meanings and small-scale structures in favor of public meanings and large-scale structures. This article calls attention to and builds on an emerging alternative approach to what happens after production, using an understanding of the social nature of objects that springs from Marcel Mauss's distinction between gifts and commodities.Mauss's model directs attention to the conflict in industrial societies between the two realms of commodity exchange and gift exchange, which I have cast as the conflict between the world of work and the world of family, and as the contrast between commodities and possessions. Thus, the model directs attention to the fact that objects are not simply transformed in production and displayed in consumption. However important these facts may be for understanding objects and society, they do not exhaust the important ways that people experience, use, and think about the objects that surround them. In particular, Mauss's model throws into relief the problematic nature of the objects that surround us and that we use in our social relations. And in doing so it directs attention to the ways that people try to reconstruct and redefine those objects by transforming them into personal possessions. This transformation makes objects acquired as commodities suitable for gift transactions, and hence suitable for the key task of recreating social relationships and social identities, the task of creating, not merely defining, who we are and how we are related to each other.Although the Maussian model addresses many of the links between people in the worlds of work and the home, and many of the ways that objects are part of these links, I am concerned here primarily with the ways that people can appropriate commodities in the process of purchase: shopping. This concern with shopping points out the social significance of retail trade, which I take to include advertising and shopping. This is not simply a passive conduit between production and consumption. Instead, it is an important point at which objects begin to leave the realm of work, commodities, and commodity relations and enter the realm of home, possessions, and gift relations. Shopping is an ubiquitous activity in industrial society and one that is highly significant culturally: we spend vast amounts of time, energy, money, and attention on it. Doubtless part of the reason for this is utilitarian, for we need to buy to live, but it would be foolish to reduce the significance of shopping to some combination of the need of individuals to acquire in order to survive and the need of companies to generate demand in order to profit. Thus, retail trade needs to be seen as well as a set of relations and transactions between seller and buyer that define and are defined by the objects and services involved, their history, and their future. My focus on purchasing food in supermarkets has the advantage of throwing into relief the problem of appropriation, because of the impersonality of object and social relations in large, self-service supermarkets. However, the very extremity of this example can create a false impression. As I noted, in other forms of shopping the social relations between buyer and seller, like the social identity of objects, can be more personal. This personality can be real, as when buyer and seller know each other or where the object is hand-made or even unique. Alternatively, it can be more purely symbolic, as when the selling company touts itself or its employees as friendly and caring or where the manufacturer advertises the personal nature of its commodities. In some cases, indeed, the manufacturing or trading company can present itself in such a way that the company itself becomes the person with whom the purchaser transacts. In addition, because of the focus on the appropriation of commodities in purchasing, I have touched only briefly on production and the world of work more generally. As does life at home, so life at work involves the transaction of objects and labor. Relations at work, then, will shape and be shaped by the nature of what is transacted. Co-workers who transact things that are more clearly stamped with their own identity, as among service workers and craft producers, will likely have more personal relations with fellow workers than will those who transact things that are themselves relatively impersonal, as in assembly-line production. This variability in the objects and relations at work suggests that people will have diverse understandings of work, and hence of manufactured objects more generally, which will affect the need they feel to appropriate commodities. In all, though, the point of this article is simple. People use objects to create and recreate personal social identities and relationships, and in industrial capitalist societies these objects are likely to be produced and purchased as commodities and understood as manufactures in Miller's sense. Our experience with and understanding of the production and sale of objects will affect the way we use them in transactions that create and recreate social identity and relationship, and will affect our understanding of the social identities and relationships that are created and recreated. Thus, the objects that people use in social relationships mediate between realms of economy and society, between the public realms where those objects are produced and distributed, and the private realms where those objects are transacted as part of social reproduction. The fact of this mediation and its effects on people's understanding of objects and social relations deserve careful attention.

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COLLECTIVE MOBILIZATION AND IDENTITY FROM THE UNDERGROUND: The Deployment of "Oppositional Capital" in the Harm Reduction Movement

Within social movement literature, the concept of collective identity is used to discuss the process through which political activists create in-group cohesion and distinguish themselves from society at large. Newer approaches to collective identity focus on the negotiation of boundaries as social movement agents interact with social structural forces. However, in their adoption of a perspective that holds identity as a process, these social movement studies neglect the more tangible cultural elements that actors manipulate when they express collective identity. This research project adopts a subcultural perspective in the Birmingham tradition to address the question of how social movement actors reapporpriate symbolic expressions of identity and what meaning systems they draw from that enable them to redefine "stigmatization" as "status" This article offers the concept of "oppositional capital" as a general framework for analyzing the symbolic work that social movement actors perform in their expressions of collective identity. For the purposes of analysis, the primary elements of oppositional symbolic expressions are divided into the four categories of distinction, antagonism, political activism, and popular cultural aesthetics. This article applies the concept of oppositional capital to representations of collective identity of a radical branch of political activism within the social movement of harm reduction. Specifically, it analyzes the zine, Junkphood to describe how actors within this social movement cohort are able to present their collective identity as part of an alternative status system by drawing from an economy of signs that are generally recognized as oppositional.     

Place,space, networks,and the sustainability of collective action: the Madres de Plaza de Mayo

This article provides a framework for analysing social movements and explaining how collective action can be sustained through networks. Drawing on current relational views of place and space, I offer a spatialized conception of social networks that critically synthesizes network theory, research on social movements, and the literature on the spatial dimensions of collective action. I examine the historic and contemporary network geographies of a group of human rights activists in Argentina (the Madres de Plaza de Mayo) and explain the duration of their activism over a period of more than two decades with regard to the concept of geographic flexibility. To be specific, first I show how, through the practice of place‐based collective rituals, activists have maintained network cohesion and social proximity despite physical distance. Second, I examine how the construction of strategic networks that have operated at a variety of spatial scales has allowed the Madres to access resources that are important for sustaining mobilization strategies. Finally, I discuss how the symbolic depiction of places has been used as a tool to build and sustain network connections among different groups. I conclude by arguing that these three dimensions of the Madres’ activism account for their successful development of geographically flexible networks, and that the concept of geographic flexibility provides a useful template for studies of the duration and continuity of collective action.     

Bridge decay

This paper is about three points: network bridges are critical to the advantage known as social capital, bridges relative to other kinds of relationships show faster rates of decay over time, and the faster decay in bridges has implications for the stability of social capital. A bridge connects people not otherwise connected; in other words, it spans a structural hole in the surrounding organization. I have 4 years of data on the social networks of bankers in a large organization. I show that bridge relations are associated with more positive peer reputations and higher compensation, but bridges decay at an alarming rate. Out of 10, 9 bridges this year are gone next year. I describe factors in the rate of decay, find slower decay in the networks of bankers experienced with bridge relationships, and conclude that social capital accrues to those who already have it. An appendix is included on the kinked decay functions observed in contractual bridge relationships.     

Religious Communities,Immigration, and Social Cohesion in Rural Areas: Evidence from England*

Religious communities are important sources of bridging and bonding social capital that have varying implications for perceptions of social cohesion in rural areas. In particular, as well as cultivating cohesiveness more broadly, the bridging social capital associated within mainline religious communities may represent an especially important source of support for the social integration of new immigrant groups. Although the bonding social capital associated with evangelical communities is arguably less conducive to wider social cohesion, it may prompt outreach work by those communities, which can enhance immigrant integration. This article examines these assumptions by exploring the relationship between mainline and evangelical religious communities, immigration, and residents' perceptions of social cohesion in rural areas in England. I model the separate and combined effects of religious communities and economic in‐migration on social cohesion using multivariate statistical techniques. The analysis suggests that mainline Protestant communities enhance social cohesion in rural England, while evangelical communities do not. The social integration of immigrants appears to be more likely where mainline Protestant and Catholic communities are strong, but is unaffected by the strength of evangelical ones.     

Jaccard-Spline index of structural proximity in contact networks

Network analysts are increasingly being called upon to apply their expertise to groups for which the only available or reliable data is a contact network. With no opportunity to gather additional data, the merits of such applications depend on empirical studies that validate the employment of structural constructs based on contact networks. Fortunately, we possess such studies in abundance. One of the strongest research traditions in social network analysis is the development of formal constructs that may be employed in analyses of networks. I suggest that greater insight into predictive success of network constructs may be acquired by addressing the following question: what features of the contact network in which a dyad is situated allow the prediction of other relations with an accuracy that validates the imputation of the latter given data on the former? In this article, I present findings on the structural contexts of dyads in contact networks and the relationship of these contexts with two fundamental forms of cohesive cognitive relations—accorded interpersonal influence and perceived interpersonal agreement. Based on these findings, I formalize a measure of structural proximity in contact networks with values that correspond to the conditional probabilities of these two forms of cohesive cognitive relations. The substantive settings of this analysis are policy groups with members who are embedded in contact structures based on regular interpersonal communication on policy issues and cognitive structures based on perceived interpersonal agreement and accorded interpersonal influence.     

Ecological Succession and Asian Immigrants in Australia

In recent immigration policy debates in Australia, it has been asserted that Asian immigrants concentrate in ethnic ghettos, thus posing a threat to the social cohesion of Australian society. This assertion has been based mainlyon selective observations made by anti-immigration groups. Nevertheless, it is more or less consistent with expectations of an ecological succession model that has guided studies on patterns of housing consumption behaviour of new immigrants in the West.
The ecological succession model contends that new immigrants concentrate in ethnic ghettos or low-cost housing areas and will move to good neighbourhoods only after they improve their socio-economic position in the host society.
Using data from the 1991 Housing and Location Choice Survey conducted in Melbourne and Sydney, the article shows that the assertion concerning the poor housing condition of Asian immigrants in Australia is unfounded. There is no ecological succession among them because they lived in good neighbour-hoodsin Melbourne and Sydney shortly after their arrival in Australia.
The ecological succession model is a valid framework for poor immigrants from Indo-China, but it does not apply to patterns of housing consumption behaviour among well-to-do immigrants from North and South-East Asia.     

"ERACE-ing" the Color Line: Racial Reconciliation in the Christian Music Industry

In this article I look at the contemporary Christian music industry and the issue of race. Racial reconciliation and inclusiveness have been part of an ongoing discourse and larger movement gaining momentum among Evangelicals since the early 1990s, and it provides important context and point of departure. The methodological approach is qualitative, based primarily on fieldwork in the form of participant observation in the setting of annual industry conventions, interaction and conversations with a number of industry workers, and review and analysis of a variety of documentary data sources. The main argument is that in the context of the heightened recent mainstream attention given Christian cultural products, certain members of the industry are using a form of what Smith (1998) termed "engaged orthodoxy" to spread the gospel and to further the aims of the racial reconciliation movement through their work. This is being done at a number of industry levels, and in this article I discuss some aspects of this activity. I also consider are some of the conflicts and tensions engendered in cultural workers' attempts to combine faith and commerce in the service of effecting social change.     

THE "BANALITY OF EVIL" REFRAMED: The Social Construction of the "Final Solution" to the "Jewish Problem"

Research on the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews has arguably been dominated by historians. Yet many historians remain confounded by the Holocaust's major paradox: the "banality of evil" that occurred during the Nazi regime. In this article I argue that understanding of the "banality of evil" paradox can be advanced by reframing previously unsynthesized research in terms of a constructionist theory of social problems. I view the "Jewish problem" and its "final solution" as having a "natural history" that is characterized by the development and unfolding of claims about problems and the formulation and implementation of solutions to problems. I trace the construction of the "Jew" throughout history and as it was identified, acknowledged, and applied in a particular sociocultural and political context. By providing the first application of constructionism to a genocidal event, I show that the social processes that construct genocide parallel those that construct other social problems, and that it is precisely this correspondence that makes the construction of the "Jewish problem" and its "final solution" banal.     

Extrapolative simulation of neighborhood networks based on population spatial distribution: Do they predict crime?

Objectives

Previous criminological scholarship has posited that network ties among neighborhood residents may impact crime rates, but has done little to consider the specific ways in which network structure may enhance or inhibit criminal activity. A lack of data on social ties has arguably led to this state of affairs. We propose to avoid this limitation by demonstrating a novel approach of extrapolatively simulating network ties and constructing structural network measures to assess their effect on neighborhood crime rates.

Methods

We first spatially locate the households of a city into their constituent blocks. Then, we employ spatial interaction functions based on prior empirical work and simulate a network of social ties among these residents. From this simulated network, we compute network statistics that more appropriately capture the notions of cohesion and information diffusion that underlie theories of networks and crime.

Results

We show that these network statistics are robust predictors of the levels of crime in five separate cities (above standard controls) at the very micro geographic level of blocks and block groups.

Conclusions

We conclude by considering extensions of the approach that account for homophily in the formation of network ties.     

大学新生班级凝聚力建设团体心理辅导方案设计

为了增强大学新生班级凝聚力,促进学生合作意识的培养,以马斯洛的需要层次理论、人际关系理论、社会心理学理论和团体心理咨询理论为指导,设计了大学新生班级凝聚力团体心理辅导方案,包括理念、目标、设置、具体方案设计、活动效果评价反馈和活动亮点展示几部分。     

Czesław Miłosz’s Self-presentation in English-Speaking Countries

Kosovo’s education system is divided along a Serb-Albanian line, with consequences for the non-Serb minorities. While Serb-Albanian relations have been researched and analyzed extensively, relations among non-Serb minority communities have typically been neglected. Although there are some studies addressing the treatment and rights of individual minority groups in Kosovo, there is very little written on the dynamics and relations those groups establish among themselves. This article uses education as the backdrop for analyzing the emerging inter-minority relations in Kosovo. The paper provides some background about minority education rights and the consequences of their partial implementation for those minority groups—i.e., the Kosovo Bosniaks and Turks—whose members opt to follow the Albanian (Kosovo) educational system. In addition, it offers insights into some of the economic and political considerations behind the decision of the Gorani community to endorse the Serbian educational system. Finally, I analyze the relations between the Goranis and Bosniaks that have been developing around education and language rights.