A comparative study of social network models: Network evolution models and nodal attribute models

This paper reviews, classifies and compares recent models for social networks that have mainly been published within the physics-oriented complex networks literature. The models fall into two categories: those in which the addition of new links is dependent on the (typically local) network structure (network evolution models, NEMs), and those in which links are generated based only on nodal attributes (nodal attribute models, NAMs). An exponential random graph model (ERGM) with structural dependencies is included for comparison. We fit models from each of these categories to two empirical acquaintance networks with respect to basic network properties. We compare higher order structures in the resulting networks with those in the data, with the aim of determining which models produce the most realistic network structure with respect to degree distributions, assortativity, clustering spectra, geodesic path distributions, and community structure (subgroups with dense internal connections). We find that the nodal attribute models successfully produce assortative networks and very clear community structure. However, they generate unrealistic clustering spectra and peaked degree distributions that do not match empirical data on large social networks. On the other hand, many of the network evolution models produce degree distributions and clustering spectra that agree more closely with data. They also generate assortative networks and community structure, although often not to the same extent as in the data. The ERGM model, which turned out to be near-degenerate in the parameter region best fitting our data, produces the weakest community structure.     

Couples,Money, and Expectations: Negotiating Financial Management Roles to Increase Relationship Satisfaction

How couples handle money has become a popular subject among scholars, practitioners, and the popular press. However, little is known about how finances should be treated within a clinical context. This study examined the financial management roles in which couples participate and their satisfaction level with these roles as well as couples' communication tactics surrounding money and their impact on relationship and financial satisfaction. Results suggested that having shared goals and values about money were a stronger predictor of relationship satisfaction than were communication strategies. In addition, satisfaction with one's financial management role participation may be more important than self-reported financial management roles each partner performs. In this study, financial management roles included 19 areas, including responsibilities such as bookkeeping, financial decision-making, and taxes.     

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.     

Communities in criminal networks: A case study

Criminal organizations tend to be clustered to reduce risks of detection and information leaks. Yet, the literature exploring the relevance of subgroups for their internal structure is so far very limited. The paper applies methods of community analysis to explore the structure of a criminal network representing the individuals’ co-participation in meetings. It draws from a case study on a large law enforcement operation (“Operazione Infinito”) tackling the ‘Ndrangheta, a mafia organization from Calabria, a southern Italian region. The results show that the network is indeed clustered and that communities are associated, in a non-trivial way, with the internal organization of the ‘Ndrangheta into different “locali” (similar to mafia families). Furthermore, the results of community analysis can improve the prediction of the “locale” membership of the criminals (up to two thirds of any random sample of nodes) and the leadership roles (above 90% precision in classifying nodes as either bosses or non-bosses). The implications of these findings on the interpretation of the structure and functioning of the criminal network are discussed.     

Modeling Resource Network Relationships Between Response Organizations and Affected Neighborhoods After a Technological Disaster

Disaster usually provides a good opportunity to observe the convergence of voluntary organized response efforts. However, the extent to which response organizations and affected neighborhoods go through the relief process similarly or differently is surprisingly less studied. Integrating the framework of community ecology and the concept of community resilience, this study examines the evolutionary process of an emergent disaster response community that consists of the populations of response organizations and affected neighborhoods. Using a technological disaster that occurred in Taiwan in July 2014 as the research context, this study shows that response organizations’ resource provision network and affected neighborhoods’ resource receipt network exhibited similar structural tendencies over the phases of disaster response and rebuilding. The process of mutual resource mobilization was also observed as response organizations mobilized and provided resources to affected neighborhoods at the same time. Moreover, while affected neighborhoods tended to maintain their resource relationships consistently over time, the changing structural patterns of their resource network reflected individual engagement in resuming normality after the incident. Theoretical and practical implications for emergent post-disaster social and voluntary behavior are discussed through the lens of community ecology and community resilience.     

Network integration within a prison-based therapeutic community

Prison-based therapeutic communities (TCs) are a widespread, effective way to help incarcerated individuals address substance abuse problems. The TC philosophy is grounded in an explicitly relational paradigm that entails building community and conditioning residents to increasingly take responsibility for leadership therein. Although TCs are based on cultivating a network that continuously integrates new residents, many common structural features can jeopardize TC goals and are hence discouraged (e.g., clustering, homophily). In light of this tension, analyzing the TC from a network perspective can offer new insights to its functioning, as well as to broader questions surrounding how networks integrate new members. In this study we examine a men’s TC unit in a Pennsylvania prison over a 10-month span. Using data on residents’ informal networks, we examine: (1) how well individuals integrate into the TC network across time, (2) what predicts how well residents integrate into the TC, and (3) how well the TC network structure adheres to theoretical ideals. Results suggest that individual integration is driven by a range of hypothesized factors and, with limited exceptions, the observed TC is able to foster a network structure and integrate residents consistent with TC principles. We discuss the implications of these results for evaluating TCs and for understanding the process of network integration.     

Money illusion,financial literacy and numeracy: Experimental evidence

Money illusion is usually defined as the inability of individuals to correctly account for inflation or deflation when making decisions. Empirical evidence shows that money illusion matters in financial decisions, particularly those made by households. In this article, we analyze money illusion at the individual level within the context of financial choices and study its relationship with numeracy and financial literacy. To do so, we propose an original measure of money illusion via an experimental task. This task consists of a series of choices between a pair of simple bonds whose returns are affected only by inflation (or deflation). We provide a fine-grained measure of money illusion that is correlated with typical measures (questionnaires) of it. Moreover, we show that money illusion depends on the choice context (e.g., inflation or deflation) and participants’ abilities. Individuals with financial knowledge are less sensitive to money illusion than others, while there is no evidence of an impact of numeracy.     

Positive Emotions,Instrumental Resources,and Organizational Network Evolution: Theorizing via Simulation Research

In the workplace, people seek positive emotional experiences as well as instrumental resources while doing their work. Yet we know little about how affective micro-dynamics drive the evolution of organizational networks, influence network trajectories, and determine macro outcomes such as collective affect and overall network structure. Given the lack of theory on affective micro-dynamics and network evolution, we propose a model that includes both affective and instrumental micro-mechanisms and use simulation methods to explore evolutionary dynamics and develop new theory. The core of our model is the empirically observed tendency for people to forego the acquisition of instrumental resources to avoid a decrease in positive emotion when choosing interaction partners. We conduct “experiments” with the simulation, considering the effects of the tradeoff, dispositional affect, resource inequality, and ingroup favoritism. The results show that dispositional affect and the tradeoff have considerable effects on network trajectories, collective affect, and resource transfer. We provide new theoretical propositions about affect in organizations.     

Picking Up the Mantle of “Expert”: Assigned Roles,Assertion of Identity,and Peer Recognition Within a Programming Class

Changing an established role in a classroom is difficult. It involves constructing a new set of relations within a community. In this article we investigate how students with newly developed interest and experience in programming developed outside the classroom pick up and establish their roles as experts in programming within the classroom community. More specifically, we focus on how two 11-year-old software designers shifted their established roles in their classroom to gain status as expert programmers. We use an identity lens to understand how peer expertise was established in the context of a classroom community, adopting a multifaceted perspective of identity by focusing on an individual's narrativization of self, full, or peripheral participation among a group of people, and individuals' social recognition by others. Our findings point to the importance of both positive positioning by authority figures in the classroom and activities and roles that provide opportunities to establish intersubjectivity among peers in facilitating students' identities as experts in the classroom. Students' willingness to take up a new position in the established activity system also played a role. We consider implications of how making roles flexible within classroom stratification may provide opportunities for more students see themselves as experts.     

Gambling and its impacts in a northeastern Minnesota community: An exploratory study

This exploratory study was undertaken to assess the effects of legalized gambling in a northeastern Minnesota community and to inform the state's citizens and decision makers of the impacts of gambling. The community, the types of gambling available, and the types of businesses and organizations involved in gambling are described. Annual (1990) amounts of money won and lost, profit margins for various types of gambling, and the resulting economic and social community impacts are discussed. The most consequential findings are the amounts of money spent on gambling (twice the state's per capita average) and the resulting community revenue losses (nearly $2 million or $105 per person) annually. Nevertheless, many local citizens want even more gambling opportunities. Public policy and future research issues are raised.     

Where do i fit in? factors influencing women's participation in rural communities

Participation in community life has been a topic of interest for many researchers and theorists. In rural areas, in particular, women play a major role in their communities, participating in a voluntary network which contributes countless hours to maintain important community services. However, little research has been undertaken which addresses women's social involvement and the factors which may inhibit or facilitate participation. This is of particular interest, owing to the lack of women's participation in committees and boards relating to resource management at state and national levels in Australia. In the present study, women across six rural shires in the south of Western Australia were asked to comment on their participation in personal and community networks and on their individual and family histories. These structured interviews were designed to allow women to define participation in their own terms, and identify factors that limit or facilitate their involvement in their respective communities. Detailed qualitative analysis revealed that in order to determine a woman's degree of involvement in her community, it is inappropriate to focus solely upon formal membership in community organisations. Participation within a rural context is not unidimensional, involving participation in family life, the farm, personal business and the community. Furthermore, participation was influenced by a number of factors which enhanced or inhibited involvement such as family status, lack of privacy, distance and the rural economy. These findings are discussed in relation to the literature on participation and community structure.     

Activist online resource mobilization: Relationship building features that fulfill resource dependencies

This study examined activist group websites (N = 300) to determine how activists are engaging in resource mobilization online and provides a benchmark for current mobilization practices by activists. Website features asking visitors to donate, join the organization, and links to other activist groups were most common on the sites. The study positions resource mobilization in terms of online relationships and organizational linkages, argues that resource dependencies drive mobilization efforts and that resource-based relationships with publics may be established in the mobilization process.     

The embeddedness of organizational performance: Multiple Membership Multiple Classification Models for the analysis of multilevel networks

We present a Multiple Membership Multiple Classification (MMMC) model for analysing variation in the performance of organizational sub-units embedded in a multilevel network. The model postulates that the performance of organizational sub-units varies across network levels defined in terms of: (i) direct relations between organizational sub-units; (ii) relations between organizations containing the sub-units, and (iii) cross-level relations between sub-units and organizations. We demonstrate the empirical merits of the model in an analysis of inter-hospital patient mobility within a regional community of health care organizations. In the empirical case study we develop, organizational sub-units are departments of emergency medicine (EDs) located within hospitals (organizations). Networks within and across levels are delineated in terms of patient transfer relations between EDs (lower-level, emergency transfers), hospitals (higher-level, elective transfers), and between EDs and hospitals (cross-level, non-emergency transfers). Our main analytical objective is to examine the association of these interdependent and partially nested levels of action with variation in waiting time among EDs – one of the most commonly adopted and accepted measures of ED performance. We find evidence that variation in ED waiting time is associated with various components of the multilevel network in which the EDs are embedded. Before allowing for various characteristics of EDs and the hospitals in which they are located, we find, for the null models, that most of the network variation is at the hospital level. After adding these characteristics to the model, we find that hospital capacity and ED uncertainty are significantly associated with ED waiting time. We also find that the overall variation in ED waiting time is reduced to less than a half of its estimated value from the null models, and that a greater share of the residual network variation for these models is at the ED level and cross level, rather than the hospital level. This suggests that the covariates explain some of the network variation, and shift the relative share of residual variation away from hospital networks. We discuss further extensions to the model for more general analyses of multilevel network dependencies in variables of interest for the lower level nodes of these social structures.     

Anatomie von Kommunikationsrollen

The identification of generalizable roles in social systems has been one of the most central issues in social science ever since. Particularly in the field of interpersonal communication, the notion of communication roles has been used to describe and better understand the complex processes in social groups and society. This contribution identifies the theoretical and methodological concepts that have to be considered when roles in directed networks are operationalized. Based on a network analytic approach and critically evaluating the shortcomings of some widely used models, this study aims to propose new concepts for the operationalization of communication roles. These concepts can be divided into two distinctive approaches. One possibility is to use microstructures like dyadic and triadic communication roles as basic units. For this approach, different aggregation rules are discussed which are necessary for their application in more complex networks. The second approach takes the overall structure of a network into account and identifies different roles by applying centrality measures, blockmodelling or hierarchical structure analysis tools. For illustrative reasons, this study limits its focus on the operationalization of communication roles as a prominent object in social science research. The concepts presented, however, are applicable for directed graphs in general.     

Votes,Favors, Toys,and Ideas: The Effect of Resource Characteristics on Power in Exchange Networks

Abstract

The goal of this research is to understand how resource characteristics influence the development of power in exchange networks. Transferability and duplicability are identified as fundamental resource characteristics that have not been examined systematically in prior social exchange research. Varying resource transferability and duplicability alters the mechanisms that produce power and determine which positions in a network have a power advantage. To predict where power will develop, I rely on existing measures for previously studied resources and introduce relevant principles of network structure for resources that have not been studied before. This theoretical logic is supported by a series of simulated exchange networks that apply behavioral principles observed in prior experimental research to the exchange of a broader variety of resources than previously considered. Results indicate how the pattern of power use in a network is contingent upon the type of resource being exchanged.     

Farmers' Professional Dialogue Networks and Dynamics of Change: The Case of ICP and No‐Tillage Adoption in Burgundy (France)

In the research reported here, we studied three cereal‐growing areas in the French region of Burgundy, concentrating on the dynamics of change with regard to farmers' use of pesticides and new soil management practices on the one hand and on farmers' professional dialogue networks on the other. Our aim in this article is to show the link between the network types and the dynamics of change in their members' behavior. Three types of coalitional networks appeared. In the “mainly bonding” network, the roles of innovator and early adopter were the most highly shared among farmers. In the “mainly bridging” network, these roles were occupied by a single person holding a central position within the network. In the “bonding and bridging” structure, the roles of innovator and early adopter were held by different individuals. We further observed that the farmers developing integrated crop protection techniques occupied different positions from those implementing complete no‐tillage, which is not promoted by technical advisory services. A rivalry thus appears to emerge between these two orientations in which the farmers are engaged within the network.     

Having the wrong kind of money. A qualitative analysis of new forms of financial, social and moral exclusion in consumerist Scandinavia

Consumerism not only promotes discourses emphasizing individualized consumer choices, but it also introduces new electronic, invisible and symbolic forms of money. The present article analyses social exclusion in contemporary Scandinavian society by focusing on patterns of consumption and the social meaning of money in low‐income households in Denmark and Sweden. Drawing on recent sociological theory on money and budgeting ( Pahl, 1999, 2002 ; Singh, 1997, 1999 ; Zelizer, 1997, 2005 ) and recent critiques of consumption studies ( Edgell, Hetherington and Warde 1996 ; Gronow and Warde, 2001 ; Lodziak, 2002 ), it argues that experiences of social and financial exclusion in consumerist society must be related to the amount of money available within the household, the social position that the household occupies, and the social form that this money takes. Pahl (1999 ) shows that the development of electronic money seems to alter and further constrain access to consumption for the ‘credit poor’ and ‘information poor’. To this ‘technological filter’, a ‘social filter’ may be added, as the results suggest that consumption patterns and the social meaning of money in low‐income families are largely incompatible with prevailing neo‐liberalist ideas of money and consumption in contemporary society.     

No time to worship the serpent deities: women,economic change,and religion in north-western Nepal

This paper explores the changing relationships between lay women, and the spiritual realm, in two ethnic Tibetan communities, Kag and Dzong, in northwestern Nepal. The study tackles how economic and social change has affected women's spiritual roles within the household and the community, and how these roles, in turn, have influenced the course of such change. In Kag, the introduction of tourism changed women's way of life. They became income-generating members of the community as lodge-owners. With new responsibilities to manage, Kag women eventually neglected their traditional social and spiritual obligations, much to the dismay of the older generation. On the other hand, women in Dzong still consider full social and physical participation in village life important despite the added obligations. They maintain spiritual harmony within the village. Dzongba women do not seem to feel the same conflicts as Kagpa women. The negative impact of Kag women's neglect of traditional social and spiritual responsibilities should be weighed against the possible benefits to women, household, and economy.     

“If You Talk Badly about Drilling,You're a Pariah”: Challenging a Capitalist Patriarchy in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale Region

Research on energy development is largely gender neutral, creating a need to illuminate how gender structures life in contemporary energy boomtowns. This study demonstrates how gender and the local economy are intertwined to perpetuate a capitalist patriarchy, which structures life for residents in these communities. The purpose of this article is to show that this economic‐gender structure creates tensions between those men and women whose gender performances reinforce hegemony and those who perform gender in direct opposition to resource extraction. I argue that men and women unconstrained by the capitalist patriarchy are better able to challenge its dominance than residents employed in the local economy. I use qualitative interviews (N = 39) with community residents and observations of community events in northeastern Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale region as the primary methods of data collection. This study complements previous research by demonstrating the relationship between masculinity and femininity, showing the variability of gender in natural‐resource‐based settings and defining the hierarchal relationship among masculinities and femininities during periods of rapid energy development.