Multilevel analysis of personal networks as dependent variables

In this paper, it is shown that multilevel methods are particularly well-suited for the analysis of relations in personal networks and the changes in these relations. Justice is done to the hierarchical nested structure of the data and the resulting dependence between observations “within egos”. Multilevel techniques can also give more specific insight on why personal networks change: they allow to distinguish between the influence of individual and of tie characteristics on the stability of personal networks as a whole and of specific ties within a personal network. This is illustrated by an application to changes in networks of four Dutch samples experiencing different life events.     

Duocentered networks

When a pair of individuals is central to a research problem (e.g., husband and wife, PhD student and supervisor) the concept of “duocentered” networks can be defined as a useful extension of egocentered networks. This new structure consists of a pair of central egos and their direct links with alters, instead of just one central ego as in the egocentered networks or multiple egos as in complete networks. The key point in this kind of network is that ties exist between the central pair of egos and between them and all alters, but the ties among alters are not considered. Duocentered networks can also be considered as a compromise between egocentered and complete networks. Complete network measurements are often costly to obtain and tend to contain a large proportion of missing data (especially for peripheral actors). Egocentered network data are less costly but a lot of information is lost with their use when a pair of individuals is the relevant unit of analysis.     

A network centrality bias: Central individuals in workplace networks have more supportive coworkers

Combining the results of two empirical studies, we investigate the role of alters’ motivation in explaining change in ego’s network position over time. People high in communal motives, who are prone to supportive and altruistic behavior in their interactions with others as a way to gain social acceptance, prefer to establish ties with co-workers occupying central positions in organizational social networks. This effect results in a systematic network centrality bias: The personal network of central individuals (individuals with many incoming ties from colleagues) is more likely to contain more supportive and altruistic people than the personal network of individuals who are less central (individuals with fewer incoming ties). This result opens the door to the possibility that the effects of centrality so frequently documented in empirical studies may be due, at least in part, to characteristics of the alters in an ego’s personal community, rather than to egos themselves. Our findings invite further empirical research on how alters’ motives affect the returns that people can reap from their personal networks in organizations.     

Modeling the dynamism of HIV information diffusion in multiplex networks of homeless youth

Cascade and threshold models are widely used to predict information diffusion in social networks, yet their characterization of networks as static and monoplex limit their ability to accurately predict how information propagates in dynamic, multiplex social environments. Using data from a peer-led HIV prevention intervention for homeless youth, we determine whether manipulating the baseline social network by (1) adding ties observed at later time points, and (2) accounting for alternative relational contexts improves each model’s predictive accuracy. Results show that the addition of new ties improves the performance of both models, while substituting the context of interaction yields only minor improvements.     

Interlocking directorates in canada: evidence from replacement patterns

Cross-sectional studies of interlocking directorates cannot adequately address the question of whether the network is primarily an accumulation of planned liaisons between specific pairs of firms or whether it reflects a more diffuse collective interest of the capitalist class. By examining the outcomes when ties are broken, it is possible to discover if ties between specific firms are usually replaced, as would occur if planned liaisons dominated the network. Replacement patterns are examined for interlocks among all firms ever among the one hundred largest Canadian firms between 1946 and 1977. About 30 percent of the broken ties are replaced by ties between the same pair of firms. Ties involving an executive of one of the firms (“insider ties”) are more likely to be replaced as are ties between firms with two or more interlocks. The findings suggest that interlocks serve both as vehicles of intercorporate control and liaison and as reflections of the class character of the group from which the directors of large firms are recruited.     

Social networks and Internet connectivity effects

This paper explores the impact of communication media and the Internet on connectivity between people. Results from a series of social network studies of media use are used as background for exploration of these impacts. These studies explored the use of all available media among members of an academic research group and among distance learners. Asking about media use as well as about the strength of the tie between communicating pairs revealed that those more strongly tied used more media to communicate than weak ties, and that media use within groups conformed to a unidimensional scale, showing a configuration of different tiers of media use supporting social networks of different ties strengths. These results lead to a number of implications regarding media and Internet connectivity, including: how media use can be added to characteristics of social network ties; how introducing a medium can create latent tie connectivity among group members that provides the technical means for activating weak ties, and also how a change in a medium can disrupt existing weak tie networks; how the tiers of media use also suggest that certain media support different kinds of information flow; and the importance of organization-level decisions about what media to provide and promote. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for Internet effects.     

Estrangement Between Mothers and Adult Children: The Role of Norms and Values

Relationships between mothers and their children are expected to be lifelong and rewarding for both members of the dyad. Because of the salience of these ties, they are likely to be disrupted only under conditions of extreme relational tension and dissatisfaction. In this work, the authors drew on theoretical arguments regarding societal norm violations and value similarity to examine the processes that lead to estrangement between mothers and adult children. To address this issue, they used quantitative and qualitative data on 2,013 mother–adult child dyads nested within 561 later life families, including 64 in which mothers reported being estranged from at least 1 of their children. Value dissimilarity was found to be a strong predictor of estrangement, whereas violation of serious societal norms was not. Qualitative data revealed that value dissimilarity created severe relational tension between mothers and adult children leading to estrangement.     

Change in Covert Social Movement Networks: The ‘Inner Circle’ of the Provisional Irish Republican Army

In this paper, we contribute to both the growing body of literature on social movement networks and the growing body of literature on change in networks by exploring patterns and mechanisms of change within the network of the ‘inner circle’ of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Specifically, we focus upon the period between 1969 (when it formed) and 1988 (the last point for which we have been able to gather good data). Our primary aims are substantive. We want to know how this network changed over time. In addition, however, our analysis identifies changes which other analysts might look for in their networks and offers methodological suggestions for those who, like us, find that their networks do not meet the assumptions of mainstream approaches to modelling network dynamics. There is a further dimension to the paper, however. We are studying a covert social movement network. This is a special type of movement network whose organisation and dynamics are predicted to vary from other movement networks. Some have suggested that they are inclined to be relatively static because the need for trust within them is so great and the risk to whatever they hold secret so considerable when new ties are formed that their members tend only to recruit within the pool of their pre-existing ties and actively seek to minimise recruitment and the formation of new ties. One of the aims of our paper was to determine whether and to what extent this is so.     

WE HAVEN'T TALKED IN 30 YEARS!

The phenomenon of reconnection of dormant ties using internet communication technologies has been identified as having salience in the use of social media forms by midlife and older adults. Dormant ties, as distinguished from those that are merely inactive, are those that were once operational, but which have lapsed under the stressors of time, distance and circumstance, such as relationships between former college friends, neighbors or work colleagues. Reconnection is the process by which these dormant ties become active again, and is an activity which is supported in unique ways by internet communication technologies. This study presents findings from interviews with midlife adults on how the use of email, social network sites and search engines is leveraged to enhance and support the reconnection of dormant relationships and maintain weak ties. Grounded in a life course perspective, it examines how the experiences of longevity and the life course alter perceptions of the attributes and drawbacks that these technologies offer. By examining adults at midlife, a less-well studied group than teens and young adults, this work provides a more nuanced perspective of the technological practices at varied points in life, and offers insight on how various communication technologies might be utilized at different life stages.     

The strength of weak conversational ties in the flow of information and influence

The “Strength of Weak Ties” theory is used to analyze the flow of information and influence in the network of conversational ties in a kibbutz community.The flow of six information items and two decision-making items was measured by indicators of communicative efficiency — speed, accuracy and credibility. The strength of ties activated and the direction of the flow (within groups or between groups) was analyzed.The findings reveal the actual, everyday functioning of weak ties as inter-group bridges, confirming the “Strength of Weak Ties” claim.The communicative advantages of weak ties are examined, applying structural analysis methods. The tendency of weak ties towards intransitivity and low multiplexity, is suggested to account for their frequent activation as inter-group bridges.The findings highlight the potential of social network analysis as a bridge between micro-level interaction and macro-level patterns including diffusion of innovation, formation of public opinion and social solidarity. Weak ties serve as the crucial paths between groups, thus providing the means by which individual behavior and ideas, originating in small face-to-face groups, are routinized and agglomerated into large-scale patterns.     

Partitioning signed social networks

Structural balance theory has proven useful for delineating the blockmodel structure of signed social networks. Even so, most of the observed signed networks are not perfectly balanced. One possibility for this is that in examining the dynamics underlying the generation of signed social networks, insufficient attention has been given to other processes and features of signed networks. These include: actors who have positive ties to pairs of actors linked by a negative relation or who belong to two mutually hostile subgroups; some actors that are viewed positively across the network despite the presence of negative ties and subsets of actors with negative ties towards each other. We suggest that instead viewing these situations as violations of structural balance, they can be seen as belonging to other relevant processes we call mediation, differential popularity and internal subgroup hostility. Formalizing these ideas leads to the relaxed structural balance blockmodel as a proper generalization of structural balance blockmodels. Some formal properties concerning the relation between these two models are presented along with the properties of the fitting method proposed for the new blockmodel type. The new method is applied to four empirical data sets where improved fits with more nuanced interpretations are obtained.     

French connections: the networking strategies of French highly skilled migrants in London

Although the migration studies literature often takes social networks for granted, these social ties are not spontaneous but require effort and nurturing. There has been insufficient research on the actual process of networking, especially among highly skilled migrants. Our understanding of why and how migrants form networks with particular characteristics is still poor. In this article, we argue that it is necessary to consider both the structure and content of networks – the nature of the relationships as well as the flow of resources within various social ties. Drawing on qualitative data from a study of highly skilled French migrants in London's business and financial sector, we use a microanalysis of network‐making processes. In the context of London as a dynamic and highly competitive financial centre, we examine the importance of opportunities, skills and shared interests in building new social relationships from scratch. In addition, we also assess how mobility and proximity, virtual communication and co‐presence impact on geographically dispersed networks and why some long distance relationships endure while others fade over time. By bringing together classic literature on professional networking and wider discussions on how relationships are managed across time and space, our work contributes to a fuller understanding of why and how highly skilled migrants form networks with particular characteristics.     

Impact of methods for reducing respondent burden on personal network structural measures

We examine methods for reducing respondent burden in evaluating alter–alter ties on a set of network structural measures. The data consist of two sets, each containing 45 alters from respondent free lists: the first contains 447 personal networks, and the second 554. Respondents evaluated the communication between 990 alter pairs. The methods were (1) dropping alters from the end of the free-list, (2) randomly dropping alters, (3) randomly dropping links, and (4) predicting ties based on transitivity. For some measures network structure is captured with samples of less than 20 alters; other measures are less consistent. Researchers should be aware of the need to sample a minimum number of alters to capture structural variation.     

Perceptions of Equity,Balance of Support Exchange,and Mother–Adult Child Relations

Equity theory suggests that relationships are more harmonious when both members of a dyad believe that their exchanges are fair. However, the level and frequency of exchange, rather than perceptions of equity, have been the focus of most research on support and the quality of intergenerational relations. Using data from 1,426 mother–child dyads nested within 413 families collected as part of the Within‐Family Differences Study, the authors explored whether mothers' perceptions of equity are better predictors of closeness and tension than are mothers' reports of balanced exchanges of support. Mixed‐model analyses revealed that mothers' perceptions of equity were more consistent predictors of relationship quality than were the balanced exchanges of support, though the results varied somewhat by gender of adult child. These findings contribute to a growing body of research demonstrating that the psychological processes that shape intergenerational relationships mirror those of other ties.     

Prismatic effects of negative ties

Research on negative ties has focused primarily on the harm they do. In this paper, we show that negative ties can also have beneficial effects. We argue that, like positive ties, negative ties can link actors together in the minds of observers. As a result, we theorize that negative ties with high-status actors can benefit a focal actor, whereas negative ties with low-status actors can harm the focal actor. This prismatic effect depends on the existing status of the focal actor: a focal actor of low status is likely to benefit far more from negative ties with high-status actors and suffer more from negative ties with low-status actors than will an actor of high-status. To test our ideas, we analyze the phenomenon of "diss songs" in hip-hop music. A diss song is a song in which a rapper makes derogatory comments about another rapper, constituting a negative tie. We analyze the effects of negative ties among 53 rappers over 20 points in time on audience reaction as measured by record sales. We find that negative ties with high-status actors enhance future sales for low-status actors. However, negative ties with lower-status actors have no effect on the future sales of both low- and high-status actors. Just as some researchers have reported both positive and negative consequences of social capital, our study demonstrates that negative ties can also have both positive and negative outcomes.     

Closeness,loneliness, support: Core ties and significant ties in personal communities

Past research has introduced further distinctions within the strong ties that form our personal communities. This work aimed at a comparison between core and significant ties in terms of their emotional closeness to ego, the social provisions that are exchanged, the relationship maintenance behaviours reported, and ego's loneliness. Measures for all these variables were assessed in a survey study. Evidence for a trade-off between the number of ties and their level of intimacy was obtained such that having more core ties was associated with lower levels of intimacy. Distinct signatures for friends from both sets of ties emerged for friendship maintenance behaviours and social provisions exchanged. Further, social and emotional loneliness were differentially related to the number and the intimacy of core and significant ties.     

The development of stratification and segregation in a new scientific field: A study of collaboration among scientists in neuroblastoma research between 1975 and 2016

Using a new data set on scientific collaboration in neuroblastoma research over a period of 41 years, we study how the structure of collaboration ties in an evolving scientific field changes over time. Guided by concepts from the sociology of knowledge and status theories, we highlight the importance of a field’s size and age for processes of stratification and segregation within it. Our findings suggest that stratification becomes stronger and diversifies as the field of neuroblastoma research expands. Moreover, we find that the occurrence of collaboration between researchers with a similar status becomes more likely as the field matures. While previous work has primarily examined established fields, our study focuses on how scientific fields change their structure over time. More broadly, our article demonstrates the potential analytical merits of adopting a dynamic and relational perspective on the developmental trajectories of organizational and cultural fields.     

Relational collaboration among spatial multipoint competitors

The presence of network ties between multipoint competitors is frequently assumed but rarely examined directly. The outcomes of multipoint competition, therefore, are better understood than their underlying relational mechanisms. Using original fieldwork and data that we have collected on an interorganizational network of patient transfer relations within a regional community of hospitals, we report and interpret estimates of Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) that specify the probability of observing network ties between organizations as a function of the degree of their spatial multipoint contact. We find that hospitals competing more intensely for patients across multiple geographical segments of their market (spatial multipoint competitors) are significantly more likely to collaborate. This conclusion is robust to alternative explanations for the formation of network ties based on organizational size differences, resource complementarities, performance differentials, and capacity constraints. We show that interorganizational networks between spatial multipoint competitors are characterized by clear tendencies toward clustering and a global core-periphery structure arising as consequences of multiple mechanisms of triadic closure operating simultaneously. We conclude that the effects of competition on the structure of interorganizational fields depends on how markets as physical and social settings are connected by cross-cutting network ties between competitors.     

Information flow through strong and weak ties in intraorganizational social networks

Strong and weak ties are compared in terms of their contributions to information flow about the work activity of persons in intraorganizational social networks. Strong ties are more important than weak ties in promoting information flow about activities within an organizational subsystem. Weak ties are more important than strong ties in promoting information flow about activities outside an organizational subsystem. The strength of weak ties in promoting boundary-spanning information flows lies not in their individual efficiency but in their numbers. In general, production of the highest probabilities of information flow is associated with a combination of both weak and strong ties.     

Geography of Twitter networks

The paper examines the influence of geographic distance, national boundaries, language, and frequency of air travel on the formation of social ties on Twitter, a popular micro-blogging website. Based on a large sample of publicly available Twitter data, our study shows that a substantial share of ties lies within the same metropolitan region, and that between regional clusters, distance, national borders and language differences all predict Twitter ties. We find that the frequency of airline flights between the two parties is the best predictor of Twitter ties. This highlights the importance of looking at pre-existing ties between places and people.