网络论坛的民意沟通与疏导

随着网络论坛在社会意见交流中的空前活跃,其问政功能和舆论影响日益显著。把握网络论坛的民意特点,认清其在民意诉求中的作用,有助于政府网络发言人在与公众的沟通交流中找准角色定位,实现对网络论坛的民意疏导。同时,要从政府、网站和网民三个方面积极促进和维护网络论坛的健康发展。     

社群结构研究进展与展望

社群结构是复杂网络研究的主要内容之一,也是社会网络分析发展的新方向。本文从概念演化、探测方法和应用三个方面总结社群结构研究的进展。在给出社群结构和模块性概念的基础上,本文首先分析社群结构与经典社会网络分析凝聚子群分析的异同;然后,探讨社群结构的探测策略,特别是总结基于模块性社群合并的社群结构探测策略的基本方法步骤;接着,总结了社群结构在社会学和管理学中的应用;最后,探讨社群结构研究和应用的可能发展方向。     

从美国网络化社会合作治理经验看社会管理体制创新

美国社会管理体制网络化合作治理的经验在于:以政府再造过程为动力原点,社区自治为平台,非营利组织体系为经纬线,建构从公民个人到社区组织,从地方政府到联邦政府等多重社会主体,扎根于基层社区,联接于非营利组织网络,以基层社会需求为重心,平等合作,形塑公共产品与服务提供的多重网络,以替代官僚制支配、控制之下,政府提供公共产品与服务的单一化、垂滴式的模式.对中国社会管理体制创新的启示在于:以政府重塑的过程,向基层社会授权,推进民间组织生长,建构中国的网络化社会合作治理格局.     

网络话语民主中的社区社会政策参与

在信息化时代,网络日益成为公民民主参与的虚拟社区,它在传播公共知识和激发公民参与等方面具有不可替代的作用。在借助网络的参与机制中,网络中的话语民主直接影响到公民民主参与的意识、程度和效果。通过南京市若干城乡社区的实证调查,在实证层面就网络中的话语民主对公民参与社区社会政策之影响进行解析,可见网络中的话语民主对公民参与社区社会政策的现状具有显著的影响,公民知情权和话语民主的实现程度是其参与社区社会政策是否积极的重要影响因素。由于网络空间话语主体参与意识与公共精神的孱弱、网络话语中存在有等级的能量场等特点,话语民主所必须遵循的原则与条件在网络空间难以实现;但我们可以充分汲取网络话语民主中有益的民主精华,以期最大限度地发挥网络话语民主之优势。     

企业网络中的信任机制及信任差异性分析

在网络式组织日益凸现的今天,信任被认为是企业之间合作的基础性建构,相互信任既是网络成员间互利互惠的需要,更是网络健康成长必不可少的行为路径和治理机制。本文对已有的信任观点做了比较、评价之后,在认知、情感以及行为三个维度上重新构建了信任理解的框架,并探讨了信任与合作、人际信任与组织间信任之间的关系;在对信任进行了净功能分析的基础之上,系统地讨论了信任差异性问题。     

基于网络联盟环境的工作满意度、组织承诺与网络组织效率的关系研究

本文基于非契约机制视角,采用结构方程研究方法,对网络联盟环境的工作满意度、组织承诺与网络组织效率的关系进行实证研究.文章首先利用信度、效度分析,确定了网络联盟环境下工作满意度、组织承诺、网络组织效率的度量因素;据此,利用结构方程模型,验证了网络联盟环境下,工作满意度、组织承诺与网络组织效率的关系路径.最终得到以下结论:网络组织环境下,工作满意度正向促进网络组织效率;工作满意度正向促进组织承诺;组织承诺对网络组织效率的正向促进作用较弱;组织承诺在工作满意度正向促进网络组织效率的过程中,起部分中介作用.本文的研究结论对于利用非契约机制改善网络组织效率具有重要理论与实践意义.     

Whom do we lose? The case of dissimilarity in personal networks

Previous research finds that individuals tend to form ties with similar others much more often than with dissimilar others. However, we know relatively little about tie loss and to what extent this is driven by (dis)similarity. In this paper, we argue that ties to persons who are dissimilar with regard to gender, age, ethnicity, and education are lost faster than ties to similar persons – and we test three explanations for this faster decay of ties with dissimilar others: lack of meeting opportunities, preferences for similarity, and lower network embeddedness. To test these explanations, we analysed two waves of the Survey on the Social Networks of the Dutch (SSND, 2007, 2014). These SSND-waves contain comprehensive longitudinal panel data on ego networks of 441 respondents, who were interviewed about a wide range of relationships, their alters’ sociodemographic characteristics, where and when they met their alters, as well as how and whether they maintain these relationships. We modelled tie loss by event history analyses. Results show that ties to persons who were dissimilar are more likely to be lost faster, and that tie loss occurs mostly in the early years of a relationship. However, meeting opportunities, preferences for similarity, and network embeddedness are unable to explain why ties to dissimilar others are lost faster. We conclude that dissimilarity is a powerful driver of tie loss, and that more arguments and research are needed to fully understand the underlying mechanisms.     

Telecommunications infrastructure in Australia

This paper considers Australia’s approach to telecommunications infrastructure from the perspectives of the policy official and the public administration scholar. From the official’s perspective, the approach has been successful in stimulating private sector investment in many markets. This has been achieved by promoting open competition and where necessary establishing a government business enterprise as a transitional measure to build and operate a next-generation National Broadband Network (NBN) to provide high-speed fixed-line broadband to all Australian premises by 2020. From the academic perspective, however, the approach reveals the shifting balances between political objectives and market challenges. This paper consists of three main parts. The first is an introduction by a former senior public servant turned public administration scholar. The second is from a policy official and provides an overview of the Australian telecommunications market, starting with some historical context, the deregulation in the 1990s and the privatisation of the former government-owned telecommunications incumbent, Telstra. The third is from a public administration scholar and provides a short complementary critique of Australia’s communications policy. The paper discusses, from different perspectives, the policy settings that have been adopted to support infrastructure competition and investment in the Australian telecommunications market, including the development of the NBN.     

Disliking friends of friends in schools: How positive and negative ties can co-occur in large numbers

Current network scholarship does not explain why negative and positive ties both frequently occur in large numbers in some settings, such as schools. In the present paper, I argue that this can happen when people disproportionately send negative ties to socially close individuals (‘friends of friends’). I propose a new theory—‘intensity theory’—which argues that disliking ties disproportionately occur between friends of friends in ‘intense foci’. Intense foci are settings that concentrate social relations, and in which other people are difficult to avoid. I draw on a mixed-methods case study of a boarding school and several strands of literature to substantiate the theory. In so doing, I offer a new mechanism for the initial appearance of disliking ties, propose a contextual approach to balance theory and networks in general, and suggest a more complex view of the link between positive and negative ties.     

Configuration to conviction: Network structures of political judiciary in the Austrian Corporate State

In this paper, we analyze the extent of political judiciary in the transformed system of the Corporate State of Austria using the computational methods of a network approach. We investigate the differences in the legal prosecution of the political opposition, namely of members of the Communist, Social Democratic and National Socialist parties based on Vienna as a case study. Based on over 1,800 court records from 1935 processed at the Viennese provincial courts, we evaluate the courts’ practice in contrast to the official legislature during the consolidated phase of the regime. In this study, we examine whether the law was strategically utilized against specific groups (following the concept of Kirchheimer (1965)’s political lawsuit), and as in the more lenient version of Fraenkel (1927/1968)’s tendency justice, we analyze whether the law was disadvantageously interpreted for political partisanship up to a blatant breach of conduct. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods with network science approaches, we identify patterns of political prosecution and structural predispositions for the sentencing of left- and right-wing groups of the political opposition. We can prove different practices of political judiciary and differentiate between the different treatment of Social Democrats, Communists and National Socialists in 1935 in Vienna. We identify specialized strategies to prosecute the political opposition, resulting in a clear bias against left-wing groups and a relative leniency in the conviction of National Socialists based on the evolution of charges in the courts’ actions. Using a multimodal network approach, we reveal key players and cooperation of judges and prosecutors which accounted for harsher sentences. We provide evidence that the system of control over the judiciary and over the political opposition was already crumbling in the Austrian capital in 1935, even before the “Anschluss” to NS-Germany in 1938.